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Mr Cerrone here Mr Gatewood president Miss Johnson president Dr Maria president Mr ploger President Miss simultan president miss venmuth president please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all 4.1 public comment okay thank you very much no public comments we will move on to 5.1 superintendent report thank you Dr Calgary we will have your superintendent report now good evening board good evening this evening I'd like to actually begin by inviting us to pause for a moment of silence we as you heard lost the student Elijah McDuff Craig McDuffie and he represented really truly the Oswego Journey starting here in our broker Learning Center all the way through um ending his journey here as a member of our Oswego High School Oswego East community and so I like to invite us to just take a minute and we're thinking of his family I had a chance to speak with his father today accept my condolences and we want to just send out thoughts of Courage and support and I know a number of things have been put in place to support both his family but also resources for the community during this time so I'll ask us to just take a moment of silence thank you during these times it's an opportunity for us to also reflect on all the important things that are in our lives and to be grateful and I know that this student would want that of us and we will do that for him and I also want to thank the crisis team for their leadership over the weekend in organizing the board's very and speaking with the many of the board members everybody's very appreciative for the rallying together and also for the leadership of the principal at OE during this time well today marks about 30 days and I have truly continued to be daily excited optimistic hopeful and also resolved in the priorities that brought me here to this board um board your your vision and the community's vision in coming together and thinking about what Oswego could what could happen in Oswego what does our future look like and it's really been um I guess you could say illustrating the names and the people I've been meeting right so I've this past couple weeks I've had my meet and greets um you have for those community members watching those are available in public notice on our website there's more information about that I welcome you all to reach out if there are opportunities that you think that I'd be have an opportunity to join to hear um the theme of this year is really community the message that I'm hearing as I meet people is community we need more Community we are Community but we can be a stronger Community by learning to listen to our each other and to really Bridge across our various divides and focus and support of children to that end I know that our staff have been working very hard to prepare for back to school it's been exciting to see the hard work that our administrators who work this summer we had our new Administration orientation last week this week we continue this with all of our admin who are returning and who have returned to the buildings who prepare for the year I got to tell you summer is always like preparing for the launch of a ship you always know that you gotta get everything ready just kind of like where the captain gets ready to launch their ship you don't want to forget a single Supply because you know once you get out to see there's no one going no going back and so I want to appreciate all our administrators right now who are working many countless hours to prepare their ships for the arrival of our most important resource which is our students today both of our high schools kicked off their one-on-one orientations proud day to be a a panther or a wolf and I want to congratulate our staff and those who gather together to prepare those today it's I think it's three days right it's three days of orientation so welcome freshmen if you're listening or or a new um students to your new spaces congratulations we believe in you and we know you can do it we are excited for your future students um as I mentioned we have Institute today also coming fast and quickly in the next couple weeks I know educators are out there traveling resting I hope you're making time for your last few days of summer and getting those rested because I know that soon enough our schools will be filled with students in our pre-k program all the way through our transitions program to those who are age 21.
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hello and welcome to Around the Clock I'm your host Yolanda Greaves and we are back here with Rich Powers Rich welcome back to Around the Clock and his newest puppy Timmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy how do I say that my wife calls him Timmy his newest puppy Jimmy uh Rich how old is Jimmy Jimmy's about four and a half months and how long have you had him uh we we received him uh first week of May and he was actually donated to us oh nice he was donated to us by a charity group uh called goofy dogs golden opportunities for Independence and they raise uh resource dogs for police departments in school um and when we lost Spencer and Penny together they reached out to us and they offered us a dog and I thought my goodness so you know I don't know how much they cost but okay let me talk to you um and she said no we're we want to give you this dog we love what she did with Spencer and Penny we want you to continue the mission so we were extremely grateful we did make a donate donation to go free yeah um so so remind people of Spencer and Penny's story uh Spencer Penny were a couple of therapy dogs that um you know pretty much visited uh you know schools hospitals assisted living and um also became world famous over the marathon um you know they've been out there since 2015 15 but in 2018 they they got noticed specifically because Spencer was holding the flag and the most gruesome conditions for that was a tough I remember and he just was so proud to hold that flag he felt the energy he knew it meant a big deal and as long as they were running as he would hold the flag and when the Rhinos were you know in between the waves he would just wet rest and wait for the next one um you know it was interesting because every time you know we went every single year the minute they got out of the car he'd jump out of the car and I would just hold the flag he would jump up right take it out of my hands and trot down the street with it so that's so cool did enjoy it he definitely knew it was a big deal and Penny would hold in in like when Spencer was taking a breath break but she was just more interesting um so Spencer and Penny were therapy dogs correct and our is the plan to do the same with Jimmy yes yes um and and and I forgot how much work it is to train these um I did find it easier with training chew dogs because you had an older one to help train the other one and then um so not having an older one now it makes it a little trickier because the older women teach the younger one but he's doing extremely well which we're working extremely hard with him and bringing him into social situations um we'll bring him to you know not crowded restaurants and that sort of thing we try to bring him into any any dog friendly establishment like um uh TJ Maxx or Home Goods right right places and he does very very well with that we're actually bringing him to a trainer as well so he gets exposure to other dogs you know not just us so and it's really helped him you know be quite a calm calm Pop I mean this this is pretty good he's doing really well for four months I would put him like as far as training goes I would put him at like 100 when he's not distracted yeah if he's distracted I would still put him above average not just a puppy just above average for the average dog so I think his training is coming along pretty well and I think he's going to make a fantastic therapy dog um he's very very gentle very very um loves loves attention and you know and I think that's just a perfect recipe for and he's highly intelligent yeah very intelligent well it's it's funny I I'm no longer a dog owner I was a dog owner and every once in a while people are like oh no you shouldn't have I don't we don't seem to eat that buddy we're still learning you should get another dog and and I go you know it's just to what you said it takes a lot of time and energy and a lot of work so yeah they're not just decorating people like you yeah they're not just decorations so if you don't have the time it's a wise decision you got to get them yeah um on the flip side of that I don't know how you can live without a dog but but that's just me um you know because when we lost our two it was very difficult for my wife and I it was very difficult to be without them because we you know we had been like I myself had had a dog for 33 years straight yeah because Spencer and Penny weren't your first therapy dogs and they had a cocker spaniel before that so this is basically since 1990 I've had at least one dog since 96 I've had two or more so right to go from two to zero was very very difficult so it was very difficult for us come here buddy hey bud what are you doing um and you know he he's he's got the puppy Zoomies he's pretty he's he's an ordinary puppy when he when he needs to be but right but he's he's very chill and and not non-reactionary which is great for a therapy dog so like a loud sound or something isn't he doesn't jump out of his skin right um we've exposed him to vacuums and you know lawn mowers and you name it the blender and you know we just it's good it's good you know just positive reinforcement and he's doing fantastic that's great he does like to eat stuff too yeah well he's a puppy right every everything looks like food yeah so uh so before we let you go and it's been so fun to meet Jimmy and it's great to see that you're continuing your work so Spencer passed away this March and he was he was about he's 13 in seven months okay um and then is that normal for a gold in that it's actually older than the average Savvy and it's it's in recent years I think the longevity of dogs in general not even just not even just purebreds but a lot of mixed breeds are they do find cancer is is rampant um you know in Spencer Penny's memorial page actually raised over forty one thousand dollars for cancer research in canines um so you know he continues to make a difference even though he's gone and um you know and they're they're they're discovering some things that might actually help either either isolate some genes or you know what yeah I I think it's genetic but I also think there's a lot of outside forces here too I don't think it's one thing or the other I do my personal thing is I question what we're putting on The Lawns but that's just you know so um I don't put anything in my Lawns but it's still out there the other thing in with Spencer you're in the process of raising funds you have a GoFundMe site to do we have a girlfriend new Memorial yep in honor of Spencer how's that going uh pretty good it's uh we have a couple of locations um you know they're 100 committed that they want the statue um so um when he passed away the enormous outcry for a statue on the route um you know somewhere along the Route was was was enormous and you know and and of course I felt the same way but I said well everybody wants one we're going to get one right so we researched a local artist he's out of Canton um he's actually worked in Hollywood and everything else uh half the funds are there already we've already made the deposit uh we're you know the he's the construction is underway our goal is to have it there for the marathon this coming year that's our that's our goal it's a hefty lofty goal um and it's you know and I think it's doable and if people people wanted to go to the site and figure out how to support what is where would it be um it's a it's a GoFundMe site you can just if the easiest way to do is just find Spencer and Penny and go on their Facebook page and there'll be some links in there and stuff like that you're certainly really happy that anybody can email us for a direct link okay um but it you know it's it's it's Spencer's stature memorial statue fund and GoFundMe you might be able to search it that way okay um and you know we're halfway there and you know we're gonna sell some um t-shirts and some prints and stuff like that event coming up we do we have an event uh a celebration of life for Spencer and Penny uh last year we had that uh we had the birthday party for them yep and five to seven hundred people came wow to their birthday party oh my goodness I'm not sure if we'll have that kind of turnout this year but I wouldn't be surprised if we and when is that Celebration of Life July 29th it's a Saturday it's uh three to seven in the afternoon at the happy retriever in Holliston it's rain or shine because it's a it's a huge training facility so we can do everything inside if we had to so there's no reason last year we had and this year again we'll have antique cars there we have vendors um last year I read the Lobster food truck this year we got Snappy dog is coming this year that's relevant yeah and uh TC Scoops is they they have an event in the earlier on but they're going to come after five so there'll be some ice cream there and we had long games it was a lot of fun last year we had the DJ and everything and we planning this similar similar experience this year wonderful um and there's a suggested donation of five old dollars um or ten dollars a family so and then we're not turning anybody away either and where is the happy retriever 126 in Hollister okay uh great yeah and it's so if people want to meet Jimmy in person it's a meet and greet with dreams um coming out party people you would be surprised how many people are so anxious to meet him so yeah so well he is a sweetie yeah he's coming too they're a small chain that based out of Boston and they they raised a lot of money for Spencer's cancer fund and they're coming again and they're going to donate proceeds to the statutory fine so nice they're thrilled to have them as well and any any local vendors who would like to come would like to have you okay we'd love to have you any evening The Bagel Train the bagel bagel table yeah yeah yeah uh any anybody's welcome if they if they wanted to set up a table you can just contact us we'd love to have you because it was a really fun fun event and it was like the way just blown away by the turnout last year it was like it was just amazingly fun great well rich thank you for coming and chatting with us thanks for having us to Jimmy he's a good boy what a good boy you are he's a good boy and we're thinking he's probably gonna all be able to hold the flag okay you know next year no pressure Jimmy no pressure maybe a lot of pressure for one year old but you know but he's already holding things he's already holding signs he's already doing updates right so that I think there's hope good well thank you so much Rich good luck with the event good to see you it was good to see you and thank you for allowing us to introduce to Jimmy yeah we love we love sharing him with the world so great well that wraps up this segment of Around the Clock thank you so much for watching boy
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hi I'm art Bergeron in the presentation you're about to see is scheduled for showing in Ashland in August this is all about uh dealing with what happens after you die uh from dealing with your remains which is what your body becomes after you die to dealing with your car the stuff in the house the house itself the bank accounts the U.S savings bonds your coin collection everything so I try to deal with all these issues um and so if you've have an interest if you're planning on dying or you know anybody who is um then then you should watch this uh and if you've got any questions please give me a call 508-860-1470 thank you hi I'm art Bergeron and welcome to the next episode of elder law 101 uh the 12 episode series that I'm doing uh this year that really ideally deals with all issues that you would ever want to know about if you're talking about elder law So today we're going to be talking about the post-mortem to-do list that is what are you supposed to do after your day dead you may recall that we have been doing this series now for quite a while uh in the first we and we're all always following my friends Frank and Mary and their kids Peter Paul and Mary Jr uh in the initial episode uh we talked about um dealing with issues that they might have dealt with when they were been before they were 60.
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sure probably yes number one yes mayor William Gartner I'm staying okay well then we keep going until we have one a decision one way or the other so that was a tie vote is that what you're saying yes and it's one abstention okay yes is there any further discussion before we vote again sure I'll say that I think it would be useful for me to have an executive session before discussing it in the open session um okay I I think it's it's clear that members of the public as well as interested parties include you know are are watching us carefully and what we say and what we do and I think having the benefit of a executive session to discuss before we go into open session is frankly what was missing last time we discussed this and would be useful tonight any further discussion okay I'm not hearing any so we'll go ahead and we'll vote again uh secretary action please remember Denise no uh secretary Eckstrom thanks for that rationale Glenn I'll say no remember Johnson Assad no Vice chair martini no Cher primary yes number one yes Mary Gardner no okay so with that the majority decision is that we move into executive session okay so members of the committee um and the superintendent and recording secretary all have a separate link to join the executive session um you can actually log off of this I will stay logged in as will gctv I will mute and turn my camera off on this and move into the executive session and we will meet there but we need to vote on the executive session yes yes thank you we sure do thank you Glenn so many procedures all right so go ahead Amy yep the item two on the agenda is about to enter into executive session first went to mglc30 section 21A subsection 3 which is the exemption to discuss strategy I don't think this is the right exemption the strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares I do declare the committee will return to open session um is that the correct one that is correct and I'll move it okay and is there a second and any discussion or can we move right to a vote I think we already discussed right when we tried to just go to item three so let's go ahead and vote so remember Denise yes secretary extreme yes remember Johnson Assad yes remember Martin or blister Martini yes yes number wall I think member while um logged off to go to this session oh she probably did yeah sorry guys mayor weedy Gardner yes okay we are entering into executive session see you on the other side thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] the world [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] workers [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] okay we are back into the public session appreciate everyone's patience we are going to move right into item three on the agenda which was a previously tabled item that we would like to bring to the table a vote we need to do a roll call oh okay go for it remember deneve here secretary yes secretary extra of Miami here remember Johnson massage present moisture Martini here pretty sure remember wall she not back I don't see her let's just go ahead with the rest of the Roll Call see if we have a corner mayor wegartner they both having trouble okay let's see if we can find them the mayor's coming in okay there's the mayor I just sent Gene the link again okay guys did you finish the roll call besides her uh no mayor Whittier Gardner she's muted but she's here I'm here um let's try to move ahead at least with the bringing the motion forward yes um member wall texted and said she was having issues getting back in with zoom so I shared that um secretary Eckstrom had resent the link so thank you she may need both the link and the passcode and people she will need the passcode I had to put it in thank you so let's try to get at least started with bringing the item forward from the table as I started to say uh agenda item three is a public vote to approve Providence Christian Academy as presented to the school committee this was previously tabled at the July 12 regular meeting we'd like to bring it to the table that the Greenfield school committee approved the operation in the city of Greenfield of Providence Christian Academy beginning in the 20s to 2023 2024 school year and do I have a motion to bring that from the table I'll second oh did I hear it first because it was already on the table okay fair enough um and we had a second okay and how about discussion anyone request whether we could take a break while we wait for a member wall to join you want to take a break while we wait for a member wall to rejoin our our group okay um yeah I guess so I hope yeah we can we can't have discussion while we're waiting for her that's what I'm trying to do is just moving along we can start discussion while we're waiting for member wall to join I can even call her I'll call you go ahead there you go you call her um discussion of the motion uh mayor way to Gardner go ahead thank you um I do plan to vote Yes on this although I do so understand I want the public to understand I do so um in saying that my approval does not equate to an endorsement of the private school's teachings thank you mayor Wayne Gardner uh looks like remember Johnson we saw it also has his hand up I plan to abstain I feel I haven't gotten sufficient information on the curriculum to make an evaluation other discussion looks like we're still trying to help member wall um I I will I will add my own comments um as originally I plan to vote to approve um this uh it should have been a simple up and down vote of something that's already allowed in state and federal law and um we should certainly consider that uh the department of Elementary and secondary education has put us in the unique and unfortunate position of making a decision where we maybe don't necessarily have the right information or even the actual power to do anything except to prove which is a perfectly bureaucratic thing from we see all the time from the state and federal government um I will also say that as I said at the last meeting um these are our neighbors and I want nothing more than uh folks to have the choice to educate their children in a way that they feel um comfortable with and have the um in this great nation have the ability to do that and I respect that regardless of what I might think of any one person's or any groups individual views that is their right any other comments Vice chair ekstrom how we doing yeah excuse me may I interrupt yes please um superintendent or chair do you know if there's a limit on the number of participants that we can have because Gene is being denied oh what is the error message I have a low-tech um proposal that um member ekstrom put member wall on speakerphone and yes please say it that way yes please which we have plenty of precedent for in this body even before the pandemic we would regularly have members participate for entire meetings by phone um that is totally allowed all right and I recommend that let's just do a test to make sure everybody can hear her uh member wall can you hear me yes and can everyone here remember well yes yes indeed okay can everyone see that it says her name on there and I don't know and that was definitely her voice do we have further discussion thank you for resolving that all of you and do we have further discussion on the motion Gene any comments no she says no okay ready to move to a vote then uh secretary estrom remember Denise no secretary Eckstrom yes Amber Johnson Assad abstain Vice chair martini Epstein Joe Peretti yes remember wall yes mayor woodygartner yes we have a majority in vote of yes can you can you read the tally please we have four yeses two abstentions and one no thank you with that said I appreciate everyone's uh working through this and attendance as well and I would ask for a motion to adjourn so moved and we do because we're remote we do need a roll call please remember genev yes secretary extra was yes remember Johnson Assad yes chair Marty Vice chair martini yes you can be cheer cheer Freddy yes remember wall yes mayor wittygartner yes at 6 56 p.m thank you everyone [Music]
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after that I became an elementary principal I knew that I wanted to get into Administration fairly early in my career and wanted to have that opportunity and being a lifelong secondary ed teacher I decided taking an elementary job was a good first step for me so in 2009 I took the elementary principal job it was a Ka building in Meet Kansas which is just south of Dodge City and spent five years doing that so as my passions continue to grow about where I wanted to learn and grow as an educator I had the distinct opportunity to work with Southwest Plains Regional service center out of Sublette and work with some amazing consultants and learn a lot about education and how how to better impact education in the long run knowing towards the end of my tenure there I was putting about 50 to 60 000 miles a year on a vehicle driving all across the state doing consulting work I was missing seeing my kids grow up and so an opportunity where I lived at Holcomb to be the high school principal came open and I took that and I felt that completed my Loop of being a teacher being an elementary principal being a consultant and then being a high school principal so I knew after that my second my next step was to get into central office and I had the opportunity at Garden City for the last two years to be the curriculum director and assistant superintendent prior to coming to Clearwater so one thing that we're really going to focus on this year at Clearwater is making sure that our communication has three distinct components to it first is going to be the why and we're going to be able to explain why are we doing this the second will be what are we doing and what are we going to do about it and then finally how are we going to achieve this so in any communication that is being sent out to external stakeholders from USD 264 we should be able to identify the why the what and the how my why I believe education is a mission field I believe we are all put here to help children uh grow to be the best that they can be and to impact those lives and then I have a driven passion over the last five years to establish education as the most respected profession it's something that has just started to dry up in the last couple years in terms of people wanting to be Educators but also people wanting to respect education for what it is and what it does and our job will be to create that respect again are what or my what will be to implement the Strategic plan that stakeholders staff students and community members all put together last year in reviewing this and during the interview process I fell in love with the Strategic plan and what it's all about it is going to ensure that all children in USD 264 are going to be given the tools to be successful once they leave Clearwater schools and so my goal for this is in five years USD 264 strategic plan will be fully implemented with visible data that supports the overall vision of USD 264 which is at one we are one team one family one District where all students reach their full potential and are well equipped to be successful and then finally I'm going to just take a few seconds here to talk about how we're going to achieve this goal in year One what we're going to do is we're going to start implementing this plan by having listening tours of stakeholders students and staff so we're going to be inviting multiple people over the year to really take a look at our strategic plan and what does it mean to them we're going to Define what implementation looks like and we're going to begin that with staff on August 10th at our back to school we're going to Define lead measures to gather data it's going to be very hard to determine success or areas of improvement within the Strategic plan if we do not have data that we can gather to look at this and then we're going to create a common communication plan that shares the why the what and the how and everything that we do so that we can make sure that we are clear and provide Clarity for our stakeholders and everything that we do so the last thing we really want to just kind of share is that we're going to have one scheduled Community meet and greet for all new administrators and the entire administrative team it'll be August 7th Monday night from 6 pm to 8 p.m and we're going to use the Clearwater intermediate Center Middle School Commons area due to construction that's going on around the high school with the bridge and some other areas this will be the best opportunity for us to have a meeting greet so you'll come out and all Administration will be present you can meet myself and new administrators that will be starting in this District Mrs Jennifer Miller will be the cims Principal as well as Dustin Clevenger will be the new high school assistant principal athletic director as well as all returning administrators which is Casey Piney the director of teaching and learning Eric Cooper High School principal Kelly shanejad the assistant principal athletic director for cm in cims and April Lutz Elementary principal for Clearwater Elementary West also during that time I will make sure that I'm at all the schools open houses so you can take that opportunity to meet and greet me I am currently here in town and throughout the week and so if you see me or you want to have the opportunity to come in and visit please do so I ask if you want to come into the office and take the opportunity to sit down and visit with me please call and schedule a time at the 620-584-2091 or email me at jjohnson usd264.org to schedule a meeting also you can follow me on Twitter to get up to date with all the things going on with USD 264.
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so I want to thank all the the range that's one of the awesome things about this district is we're able to really build that whole Bridge across multiple years and lay a foundation I'm looking forward to our discussion later on this evening around some of the board priorities that we've surfaced and really start to think about how we want to take some next steps there and with that I want to turn it over too thank you thank you tell Gotti 5.2 board member comments in [Music] oh you know I I I did attend one of the meet and greets um The Churchill Club clubhouse last week um just wanted to let the community know that those in attendance really appreciated it they enjoyed the event and the opportunities to be to be able to meet you and hear from you um there's going to be many other opportunities as you indicated and it's going to be communicated to the public it's already been communicated but I think we're getting some more robust Communications as well and uh please attend thank you it's a unique opportunity so to those in the community please attend I'll go um I want to make sure that the community is aware of start strong this weekend start strong is a program that's put together by the Kiwanis Club of Oswego along with the community cares group what we do is we want to make sure that every child every student is ready to go back to school so we'll be handing out school supplies at Old trauber this Saturday from I think it's 9 to 11.
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in the next episode we dealt with we dealt with issues during their 60s uh we then we talked about Frank and Mary in their 70s in the fourth episode which actually happened during tax season we talked about tax tax income tax issues uh next we talked about Frankie Mary in their 80s then we'd had a separate episode that talked about qualifying for Mass Health which tends to be an extremely important issue if you're in your 80s and your 90s because you you folks are worried about being frail needing Care at home needing nursing home care um then we talked about in the last episode we talked about Frankie Mary during the last year of their lives today in this episode Frank and Mary are dead so we're trying to figure route what to do at that point and in the remaining episodes we're going to talk about other issues now today we're not going to talk about what would have to be done if any of the assets of Frank and Mary were in trust that's what we're going to talk about next month we're going to talk about all the basically all all not all the three major kinds of trusts that that Frank and Mary may have had an interest in doing while they were alive and how each one of those would get handled after they die then later we're going to talk about issues with their kids and their grandkids and we're going to talk about looking at Medicare which is always an important issue and which we're going to talk about in November when it's etiquette Medicare open enrollment time and then finally in Christmas time we're going to talk about tax planning and uh giving So today we're talking about Frank and Mary my old friends and their kids Peter Paul and Mary Jr I always tell people if you're old enough to get the joke you're old enough to be my client um and but today but today we're talking um not about Frank and Mary themselves but about what happens after they're dead because you know when when Mary died or excuse me in with the example we always give is that Frank died first and when Frank died we don't know exactly what happens to Frank's after he dies we don't know if he goes to heaven we don't know if he goes to the other place we don't know if he gets reincarnated as an elephant or something but the point is for for purposes of this life he's gone uh and the question is always how to deal with the things now typically uh when Frank died like in in this case if Frank died then there would have been no need for probate because assets typically would have been owned by Frank and Mary jointly the legal rule is that if you own something jointly with someone and you die your interest evaporates at that moment the Survivor becomes the sole owner so there's no need for going through the probate process things that get very simple um the question though is what happens then when Mary dies once again we're not exactly sure what happened as far as her spirit is concerned as far as her stuff though we need to deal with it so the question is um how do we deal with Mary's Earthly goods and of course the first thing that we need to deal with the moment that Mary dies uh is her remains because when Mary dies her body is she's no longer married three at that point um legally there are there is this body and it is the remains and the question is then who's in charge of dealing with the remains and how do the remains get dealt with well if Mary died leaving a will uh and and her will said named a personal representative and said that she wanted that personal representative to be in charge of those remains then that actually qualifies that person to take care of everything even though the will of course at that point has not been probated uh it's a way that the legislation legislature had of handling that issue so if she's done that that takes care of everything if she hasn't done that but she's left some set of personal instructions then chances are that's going to be uh adequate what I always suggest to clients is before they die you may want to talk to someone at a funeral home do a set of instructions regarding how things are going to be how you remains are going to be treated after you die you if you're if you're dealing with the funeral home you can at that point prepay for whatever what however the the uh for for all of those Services if you do that then there's a state law that says that that payment ends up getting held in escrow until you die um and then following your death then the funeral director of the funeral home uh will Implement those plans and at that point can pay themselves the money that is being held together with interest the point is you can do that set of plans um before you die if you don't though um then the question is who has control of your remains and the answer is uh your heirs first your spouse and then the kids I've had the situ unfortunate situation where someone had died um and the person who had died there had been a second marriage uh and so there ended up being a a disagreement between the children um of from her first marriage and the the the surviving spouse uh the children wanted the surviving spouse to not be able to go to the funeral right and I had to go talk to the funeral director and explain to him that actually legally because there were no written instructions the surviving spouse was in control of the remains and actually had the ability to exclude the children from the funeral so the point is um the the as in so much of estate planning the goal is to have a plan and to make it as clear as possible what to do then it's all about whatever you wanted to do and believe me the best thing you can do for your kids is to get all this stuff in writing before you die to make sure that the kids know what you want so that they're not arguing about it remember the moment of your death will be a very very uh emotionally charged moment and dealing with your death is always hard for children it makes it even harder if their trying to figure out what you wanted after you're dead it's very much like the health care proxy problem where you try to give instructions so that anyone who is handling your medical Affairs um when you're incapacitated knows ahead of time what you want so um you know there are any number of things that can happen regarding your remains you can be buried there may be a burial plot you may have purchased a plot you may have inherited a plot the rules regarding those burial services are all controlled by the cemetery commission where that wherever that cemetery is what you own when you own a burial plot is not the actual land what you own is the right to have your remains put into a piece of that land as to the rules of the control of that plot it's almost totally in the discretion of the cemetery commission and of course you can always have your body cremated you probably want to tell folks ahead of time if you want to if you want to have that done so but the point is you want to be dealing with these issues before you die so it'll be clear for your kids after you die then of course there's the question of what to deal with how to deal with everything else and we're assuming here that Mary had a house she may have had an IRA or other tax deferred funds she may have had a bank account that was in her name um remember in this case if she had been if these assets had been joined with Frank then at the moment of his death she would have become the sole owner then of course there's the stuff the personal property the car which is a special case we're going to talk about the car U.S savings bonds various other issues so the question is how to deal with all of that stuff after Mary dies so dealing with the stuff when I talk about the stuff I'm talking about the tangible personal property which means anything that you can touch but that isn't real estate so we're not talking about stocks bonds things that things are that are intangible uh but just the but just the stuff so the ideal if there are particular items that you want to have given to particular people is that you do a list and that you actually in that list name who was going to be getting what and then if you have a will in your will you say specifically that it is your intention um um through the um through the will that if you've left that kind of a list typically called a memorandum that that's going to be legally binding right that's probably the best way that you can that you can uh handle that the one question that often comes up especially if um if you'd if Mary died in an apartment is how can people get access to all of that so one of the things that you can really help your children with especially if you're living in senior housing or any kind of any kind of housing where there may be a question following your death of people getting access in order to deal with this stuff is talk to the management talk to the folks there find out if there's a form you can need to fill out if there's anything that you need to do in order to assure that after you've died people are gonna your folks are going to get access to all of that and then then of course there's the question of what if there is a fight now I have been doing this work for about 45 years I have yet to have a case where there was such a fight over the tangible personal property that anything needed to be argued out in court right so usually there isn't people just divide things up and if the question is do you need to go through the probate process to deal with the tangible personal property typically the answer is no and the reason is if there is tangible personal property and then it's going to get and it's going to get sold and I'm going to buy some of it if there's going to be a yard sale I'm not going to really care if somebody can show me a will and show me that you know the right person owns it I'm just going to say here's my money give me the item right so so typically these those issues don't don't arise so if you're worried about that if you're in a situation where you've got tangible personal property but everything else that you own is in joint names with other people chances are there's never going to be a probate on any of this you may not even need a will um the car the car on the other hand is the most common car you common cause of the base what I call an accidental probate because a car has a title and if you die um with that title the only way that anybody can transfer that car to anyone is by going through some form of the probate process getting appointed as your representative and then being able to sell the car now people folks will tell me well you know but if the car's not worth anything it's a junk that's even worse because you have to go through that process whether it's a fifty thousand dollar Mercedes or whether it's a you know one thousand dollar junk so um the question is how to deal with that so uh the the best way to deal with it is to make sure that the car gets transferred before you die what I typically tell people is you know what you really want to do is whoever you've named as your power of attorney agent tell that person look if I'm if I'm getting sick it looks like it may die soon go to the registry take my power of attorney take the the title to the car and of course you have to tell them where the title to the car is and transfer the car to yourself uh and you'll which you'll be able to do right there because you're going to be at the registry you can just fill in all the forms um and then um take the car and do with it what I tell you so of course in order to do this you need to trust the power of attorney agent but presumably that's why he's your power of attorney agent if you haven't done that then what someone is going to need to do unless there's a larger probate that is being filed because you have substantial assets is to file a so-called low-value probate the uh this uh process is available when when the total amount of the assets of the deceased not counting the car is less than twenty five thousand dollars so if if there's if whatever the car's value is you can use the low value probate option if it's a fifty thousand dollar car that's okay because the car the value of the car doesn't count and if that's the case then you file a special form with the registry of probate you fill in the form you show what the value of the other assets is you show that they don't add up to more than twenty five thousand dollars typically that low value estate will get approved almost immediately there's no need for for special notices in the paper and any of that jazz and then you can take that document with you to sell the car by the way that say you're going to use that same technique uh if if the your if your mother or father or whoever died leaving small bank accounts um you you're going to get approved you're going to list those small bank accounts including the account numbers on the uh on the probate form you're going to get approved you're going to then be able to go to the uh to the bank with that document and close out that account get a check payable to whoever is named as the personal representative so that's how you handle the car jointly owned property as I mentioned earlier journey home property is presumed to be owned by the survivors so if I own something so in Frank and Mary's case they own their house jointly they own bank accounts jointly the moment that Frank died his interests evaporated Mary became the sole owner in this case if Mary has put other names onto all of those accounts including the house then then at the moment of her death it is presumed that her interest evaporated and these other people the survivors became the owners of that property I should mention though um that that that up ownership that presumption of ownership is only a presumption which can be rebutted um the most common cause of what I'll call Family feuds disagreements among the family going through this probate process is a fight between the the person who was named as the personal representative under the will who then files the will and gets it approved and someone who is named as the surviving joint owner on a bank account or on the house especially with bank accounts um the the the the the folk the person then who has who has started the probate and is the personal representative will say at court oh you know my mother never put put my sister's name on that account as a joint owner meaning that she'd get all the money but only as a convenience because my sister was helping out with her financial matters Etc right and and that argument as I say that's the most common cause of of a fight so so it is not necessarily guaranteed that there'll be no probate but chances are that will avoid the probate process regarding other items life insurance policies IRAs investment accounts if you die um and you have specified that at the time of your death those assets are going to a particular person which always is the case with life insurance you can't buy a life insurance policy unless you've named the death beneficiary which should be the case regarding the IRA regarding your iris or 401ks any tax deferred funds typically you would have named a death beneficiary then in all of those cases when you die the death beneficiary will simply need to file a claim form with the insurance company or with the the bank or other entity that's holding the IRA and the bank will pay them directly and if you've named multiple people if you've named several of your children for example on the IRA then each of them will file their own claim form and each of them will get their own check for their portion of the proceeds regard investment accounts if you have investment accounts excuse me don't assume that you because you have the investment account that therefore upon your death your kids are going to get the money whatever make sure you check with the entity that is holding those funds to see and make sure that you file the death beneficiary forms this is especially important by the way regarding all of these issues when when Frank died and Mary became the Survivor it may very well have been that at that time she had a life insurance policy or other assets which named Frank as the death beneficiary if she doesn't change that death beneficiary to name her kids or whatever when she dies all of those assets they don't the money doesn't get kept by the insurance company but all of those assets now become a part of Mary's probate estate there's of course the house if the house was in was in joint tenancy with some of the kids then at the moment of Mary's death the kids would become the owners of the house in in in in the case of real estate there's a second alternative which I often recommend to folks who are trying to avoid probate which is that you give your children or whoever you want to leave the property to a so-called remainder interest in the property that is the interest that remains after you die you keep a life estate in the property so that you keep control of it while you're alive if you've structured things that way then upon upon your death your interest of rates the new owner the remainder man becomes the sole owner of the property and no probate is necessary finally what if you didn't do this what if you didn't do all of these things or any regarding some asset and and remember if if you're one of your goals is to avoid probate and that is a very common goal for a lot of folks then the way to figure out whether you're avoiding it is to look asset by asset and regarding each one of those assets take what I have just talked about and figure out if you've dealt with it if you've made all the accounts joint if you if regarding the house you've done a a deed out of a remainder interest but kept the life estate if you've made sure that you've got death beneficiaries on all the other assets look at each one of the assets that's the best way to avoid probate but what if you haven't done that here's what probate is about first of all the point of probate the point that probate has two points one to figure out who gets what if you have a will then all of your assets will be divided according to the terms of your will if you don't have a will the assets will be divided according to the rules of intestacy the rules that apply when there is no will oftentimes people will tell me I need a will otherwise my assets are going to go to the state trust me they will never go to the state if you die leaving assets there will always be a cousin there will always be a somebody who will show up to claim those assets the point is though that before those assets can get distributed to anyone creditors have to get paid and and and creditors will have one year from the day of your death to file a claim against your probate estate which is the reason why probate always takes at least a year because your assets can't be distributed whether you have a will or not can't be distributed to anyone in case until at least a year and a day following your death by the way as a result of changes in the law that were made now actually almost 10 years ago you can also avoid those creditors if you want and chances are you will avoid them by simply waiting until a year and a day after you've died of course this won't be you but your family by having them wait until a year and a day after you've died to file those in the probate court because in order for a creditor to preserve their claim they need to have sued the estate and file the CL and notified the estate that they had that they had filed that suit if if no probate is filed right and they have ensued and haven't notified somebody then they're going to be wiped out a year and a day after you die um so so this this this may be a reason for delaying that probate even though of course it will end up delaying the distribution if you file the probate later after that one year then as soon as the person has the the personal representative has been appointed the personal representative can then turn around and distribute the assets right away because all the creditors are already been wiped out and once again the one of the one of the pieces of probate is you need to figure out who is going to be in charge that is now called the personal representative uh if you have a will it used to be called the executor if you have if there is no will it used to be called the administrator now it's all called the personal representative so now what uh how do you deal with probate before probate appointment well what you have to do is you have to file a petition uh the person who is named as the personal representative can file any beneficiary named in the Wilkin file if there is no will any of The Heirs can file um there are two probate processes one is called informal and one one is called formal formal requires that you jump through more Hoops before the personal representative is appointed however formal would be necessary if it looks like there were good there's going to be arguments or people can't assent to the the to the uh to the petition or if there's real estate involved if it is formal then the process is once you have filed the court issue a notice called the citation that notice will say to the to the people who would otherwise have had an interest in the absence of a will that is The Heirs and also to everybody else a will has been filed and by the way this is the notice that gets published in the paper a will has been filed um if you've got any objections to that will or to the the the approval of a of a petition by someone saying there was no will you have a given amount of time typically about 30 days from the date of the issuance of that citation to file an objection after that period has passed if there is an objection the court will hear the objection if there's no objection at that point the court will issue uh so-called letters testamentary the the the the documents signed by the probate judge um that that names that the personal representative as the person who can now handle all the assets once that has happened and once those letters testamentary have been issued by the court uh the person who has been named will typically get a go get a tax ID number from the IRS and then go to the various Banks where assets are located and and the base the banks will then give that personal representative a check payable to the estate 8 based on showing the showing of that that uh that certificate the the personal representative would then go about paying all the bills um and waiting waiting until the end of that one year creditor period which can seem like forever right but remember it is there as a short statute of limitation because it cuts off all creditors at the end of that one year uh personal Representatives can make early distributions the only problem with doing that with that if you're the personal representative is that if you do that and then a creditor shows up during that one year period and there isn't enough money left to pay the Creditor you're personally liable to the Creditor the personal representative would also be responsible for filing any any uh income taxes of the deceased that hadn't been filed as well as filing the estate tax and we're going to talk about the estate tax by the way in a separate Bridge Ron briefs episode I try to do Bridge Run briefs uh episodes which are 15-minute segments dealing with a particular issue we can't we're not going to deal with the specifics of the estate tax today because literally as we speak the legislature is debating whether to change a lot of those estate tax rules so once the year is up the personal representative would typically want to get and do an accounting and send that accounting to anybody who's going to be getting any assets until as part of that accounting say here's what I'm proposing to give you to each of those distributes and then get a sense or releases from each one of those distributes if the tip what are the typical causes of trouble well you know we I've we've had these cases occur we always call them family feuds where for example maybe Peter has been named as the personal representative but he hasn't been following through and nothing's been filed or you're concerned that Peter's taking money off the top any number of things if that is a concern to any one of The Heirs or the or the people who are named under the will they can always ask the court for a minute to require that Peter do an accounting ahead of time and if they if he's not doing any good job those people can also get Peter removed as the the named personal representative if there is a will the probate is exactly the same as the as intestate as intestacy often if there is if there is a will that will contain a so-called power of sale in it that in that power of say will typically give the personal representative the ability to sell the property without any getting any permission from the court I accept that the proceeds then would have to continue to be held in Probate until after that year had that year has gone up um what about trusts what about if assets had been put into Trust of various kinds in order to avoid probate well that's actually the topic for the next seminar so um I hope you found this helpful the point of all this is and I think you can you can tell the theme of this is if you're concerned about probate you need to know how it works um and you and if you want to avoid it there are ways to avoid it and I've given you some of those ways I hope you enjoyed the presentation and I look forward to seeing you um when I do the next seminar thank you very much
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I hope to meet and greet with all of you during this first semester and get the opportunity to establish our relationship and really focus on our theme for the 2023-24 school year is to be the one we're going to make sure that every student and every staff has someone that they can turn to in the time of need but also we're going to be there to support them during all of the ups and the Downs that go through a typical school year thank you again and please reach out if you need anything
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um I I'm going to be there um I know Jared's going to be there I know damn you're going to be there there may be other other people too Jen you're going to be there as well uh come join us but you know the important thing is again no child should be coming to school ill-prepared based on something we can't I'm trying to think of how to say it every child should be able to come to school prepared for class and economic status or anything like that should not stand in the way so that's happening on Saturday um please please be there if you're interested and please spread the word I definitely want to put an exclamation on on that an exclamation point you can also drop off supplies if you can't be there to pack backpacks you can also drop off supplies there I just wanted to also um probably more as a comment to myself than anything but to all the parents out there I know we were we are all anxious and um utilizing that patient's muscle that we all have right now as our staff and our admin are working behind the scenes around the clock to prepare for a new school year with new systems and new tools that will all make our life easier in the long run but certainly um it feels a little clunky right now so um just a little bit of patience I see a lot on social media about PowerSchool and that and transportation and all the things that we as parents worry about prior to school starting just know that that communication is coming very soon and it will all get to us in a timely manner and then I think the last thing just getting a lot of feedback from the community is that feeling of hope that a lot of people are feeling right now that Dr kilgotti has brought in and that our staff has really embraced and I look forward to our students starting off this year in a very POS with a very positive momentum so I'm very grateful for that um just real quick I had the opportunity Friday to um give give back I guess participate I don't I'm not sure the proper word here uh 71 reasons um and you know anything we can do to excuse me to um come together as a community help with um uh help with bringing um awareness to um to suicide and um and in addition to that problems that um you know arise for our youth and it was tremendous outpouring um I couldn't believe how many were there I walked in with with my wife to go bowling and she was like whoa you you were right there was gonna be people here I said yeah but this is even more than I thought and uh I want to give a shout out to uh um you know there were a lot of people I saw there I saw um police officers from um I know Oswego I believe I saw a couple fire uh firefighters from Oswego um and uh I I was bowling on the same Lane with our village president uh so to Mr Kaufman uh thank you I know he was a one of the donators for sponsors or what have you and so um great outpouring thanks to Parkside Lanes also um um thanks to the students it was it was tremendous to see how many students were there former and current and and them participating in that so thank you for that Jared um one thing I wanted to just add that I am Jen you reminded me was that really we want to the team has been hard at work at really lifting our new website and our student information systems and actually tomorrow um if you're listening you will have a chance to receive an email first about PowerSchool and then you'll receive an email with your access code and PowerSchool password and Dr Kincaid has been working very closely with Dr petsky to make sure that this launches you're going to get a number of information pieces if you don't receive anything so basically just a reminder two emails are coming tomorrow so if you don't get two emails for PowerSchool please reach out to your principal or any of the other tech support lines that are available I just wanted to share with the community that um Dr Calgary and our vice president Eugene Gatewood and I had an opportunity to spend some time with our village Representatives um um Dan DeSanto and Ryan Kaufman we sat down and we were we broke bread together and we just started to talk about our Visions for what we want to see happen in terms of our relationship and we want to build on that relationship we want to be very collaborative we want opportunities to sit on the different committees that are available so that our voice is represented you know we are one of the two largest taxing bodies in in our our communities and we just want to make sure that our community understands that we are working together to provide the best in both of our our our situations whether it's the district or the village so that was a very um good time and an opportunity for us to really start to talk to each other and open those lines of communications and then I just wanted to thank my SD 308 family and I and I do mean family for their outpouring of support and condolences to me as I experienced an unexpected loss of my brother and you know there were so many um condolences and cards and flowers and plants and I just wanted to say I feel your love and I feel your support and I thank you for just allowing me this time to grieve as I go through this process sometimes everything's okay and then the next minute I'm in a pool of Tears so I thank you all for your patience with me thank you next 6.1 discussion of the board not even start that discussion so for the purpose of our community and for this board I really want to start by situating this conversation this evening around the board priority so the board has had a tradition for many years of having hosting a board retreat in the summer and I think that's reflective of a healthy board attempting to really align itself and prepare itself for the year and this board was gracious enough to hold off on its Retreat to my appointment and so a week before the appointment or a week and a half before the board retreat on July 1 I was a advised that not only am I attending I will be assisting and leading it so I want to thank uh our dear cabinet colleagues who joined me that day Dr Kincaid Dr petsky and Dr dalquist Who assisted and really coordinating and helping structure this and we met with uh our vice president and board president in preparation for what the goals of what and I think it's important to note that this day was really focused on the priorities and during this Retreat we really went deep into what Envision 308 represents right it was a chance to learn and to hear each other um but I want to underscore something here for the community that the work of Envision 308 and where this board stands is really connected to the equity statements that the board agreed upon back in September of 27 2021.
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and the reason why I'm lifting this is because no strategy not a strategy if it doesn't have a Clear Vision as to where you're going is going to mean much right so where are we going and if you want to know what the board is interested in and I think that this board has made it very clear to me in my interview process we want to know where we're going those statements I would say represent the best of where this board wants to land and so as I enter and as I think about the strategies that are here it was important for me to understand what the boards instincts I guess I was that's the best way what are their what is the the spirit what is the energy what is the thinking around the current Envision 308 and where do we want to see because clearly to be honest with you if you ever tried to move a project you really can't do everything on that project at once you have to get to some priorities about where you're going to start what you're going to do first what are you going to do second how are you going to drill down how are you going to analyze it what are you going to do in getting to that goal and honestly that was really the purpose of that day spend some time starting to distill we didn't come to complete answers but we initiated that process and so one of the activities we did during the retreat was we engage in some reflection and we we posted all the strategies um on the wall and board members had an opportunity to essentially vote together about um in an informal way it was an informal vote about what would what surfaces to the top of the priority list um not as a exact science but rather as a way to support me as I came in to then also analyze where I would put some more focus in my investigation and in learning from what's Happening and from that work for board priorities um became kind of really the the top level we could say that I am proposing to the board to consider as we start to think about this year not that any other priorities um are less important but rather where do we start when I think about this exercise this activity of really learning about the system but also working through it and so in that end you can see here uh focus on there was real consensus amongst the board members around the priority of improving math and literacy and really thinking about what are those common expectations for instruction and what are those systems necessary to really ensure that their early intervention um is available for every child to be successful in this District next I would say that thinking about the way in which we're thinking about our post-secondary work around our curriculum in terms of Financial and digital literacy a high priority in our conversation in addition in addition to our voting and I would say really in speaking with board members is a focus on behavior and social emotional health of all our students and I would put a caveat under that our staff as well So Not only was that a dotted activity but that is a voice I've met with every single board member multiple times and in meeting with you this is always at the top of my climate and culture for students and for staff because before behind every student is a staff member last are Recruitment and Retention approach how are we thinking about recruitment how are we being Innovative how are we pursuing high quality and diverse staff how are we becoming the magnet for this community to retract of color and diverse staff I'm going to pause there and it's open if there are any you know this is really a conversation for discussion so how does this resonate as you're seeing these are there things that are anything that you think you'd like to add colleagues who are there have missed something please I'll just make a quick piece yeah you know I I appreciate the retention of staff and diverse and you know I I had you know Jen and you and I kind of exchanged this week and one of the things I appreciate what you said because one of the things that um it it had me go back as you know and look at evidence-based formula right and I don't think sometimes the the community realizes that if you take the evidence-based formula and look at the percentage of the school where the school districts are at funding Oswego is the lowest of every District it touches um it's even lower than than East Aurora which is the closest to us and so I wanted to say you know um I think that piece is connected but I don't think it's an impossible task in front of us where we we all took this job because we care and we want what's best but clarify I'm sorry clarify when you say lowest clarify what do you mean by that what's that at least funded for its needs right and that's the that's the caveat right I thank you for that because it's it does obviously we get way more resources than newer but we could also fit both of their districts probably in one of our schools if we needed to um I'm not saying we need to I'm just saying we could um but as far as need we are the lowest and so I want to say I appreciated that because you know it got me to say okay well I'm gonna look at this and and I all of us are here because we we believe we're up to the up to the task of taking that on but I I think there's those opportunities to make sure the community is aware of those things I have never sent somebody 120 plus page document and have them whip around data so fast in my life I was like whoa okay okay I was like I just needed him to help me understand some things and he is so fast um I just want to say one thing all of these things are spot on um I think a lot of the things that we we spoke about were Envision 308 was created prior to the pandemic we can't do everything we have we have a budget we have resources that are finite and we can't do everything and we need to get better about doing a few things those few key things really really well and embedding in it the other things that um as as capacity builds we can add to it yes what I want to share and something that sparked when um Jared and I were going back with the numbers and um uh the reports from isbe and so forth is that one of the things that the community has talked about with regard to transparency there's another there's like a complimentary part to that that comes with it which is education of why these things are important why we do the things we do and I think that we have the other thing that we talked about in our Retreat I know that a lot of the board members have shared with you is showing the community why we make the decisions we make sometimes they see the end result they don't see the journey that we get there and I look forward to that happening and the second thing is we talk a lot about how we are still today the fastest growing County in the country we grew at a at a phenomenal rate but what we didn't do and and it happens a lot when you have big organizations is we didn't scale well and what we have tasked Dr Calgary and his staff with his team is to break down and rebuild systems and processes and procedures so that that we're never built and so things have been kind of cobbled together but not formalized and memorialized so across all of those things also behind the scenes he is actually building the plane while the admin is flying it and so I think it's really important that this might seem really simple to narrow it down to four things but there's a whole there was six hours that went behind this of discussion and you've gotten that from community members from staff as you've met them so I think one of the most important things and one of the reasons I know that you were the right person to hire is because you talked about systems in your interviews a lot and realized that it's not people that fail it's systems that fail and so as we start to build those systems and processes and procedures we are all if things will become more transparent things will be communicated better because the systems are put in the place to make those things happen so I just wanted to make sure that this is what we need to do is to simplify so we can clarify and get really hone in on but there's also so much that this team is doing behind the scenes that people don't realize one thing you said I appreciate them of course we service multiple which county are you referring to Kendall yeah us being the largest employer in Canada and Kendall have a have as a moniker because with that comes a lot of responsibility and so therefore um as a board we're tasked with um organizational Effectiveness that is one of our key roles organizational Effectiveness and student learning and so we we want the moniker but we also want to have an organization that is effective and efficient and is taking care of the needs of all those that we impact and so we understand that the systems give us what there are how they are um structured is the result we get and if we don't like the result we get we're getting then we have to change the systems and I know that we we want strong people because only strong people can build strong systems and so we're we're looking forward to the work that we're all going to do together to bring those systems into play so that we are organizationally effective said something there that I really appreciate is really this idea of as a system we have a system newsflash we actually have we do lots of systems right the question now is really intent versus impact yeah right and so how are we thinking is the system and the intention we have for this system getting the impact we are seeking and I got to tell you I love starting a place where we we care because it's one thing when I go to these meet and greets if I were going to the meet and greets and there is one person or two people but so far they've been 15 20 25 and two-thirds plus of those are both people who are not just as you said in employers they're employers of the employees of the district but they're also parents they're taxpayers they're in our this is this is us there is no one else this is us right us we go but this is really our community and there's such a deep commitment and care that that's a I got people are surprised they're like wow you seem really upset because it's easier to start with motivation what people are motivated to come out on a Monday night or on a Wednesday night when I mean um was one person five kids I said this is like a vacation for you but for most people you know it's a sacrifice again for that person too right and so there's motivation so that's where my enthusiasm feels where's your motivation coming for why are you so enthusiastic this is because people care it's great to start there how do we how do we um make [Music] of many cities right and how do we make everyone feel like they there are they are a part you know because even though our name says Oswego we are much more than just Oswego thank you thank you for saying that and I I've been working with uh Theresa our communications director with board members and um Michelle early our parent and Community engagement um coordinator and really just expanding that vision and so again Reach Out given you access to make sure that you know Aurora are those of you in Montgomery the playing field please reach out and we are hosting multiple events in these different spaces and our and our goal is to really stretch across and if if what you see doesn't fit reach out and we'll make sure we find a way to fit you in right um so as you look I want to take a step go ahead I just Jen Jones had some great enough please getting strong at a few things yes you know those uh kind of those those things that build upon you know the rest of the that our building blocks um and then having that Snowball Effect to where once you get great at those you can do lots of other things and that's we're a district that doesn't have the financial means with the ebf um but yeah that's I I just really like that you said that and I just wanted to kind of um and say I like that Snowball Effect and yeah I'm also hoping I appreciate the focus on systems and I do think that these priorities not only reflect the board's discussions at our retreat but also Community discussions that we've had for a long time whether it be you know two three years ago or on the campaign Trail or whatever the case may be so I appreciate that and the focus on systems I think also allows you to think about what are the things that we're doing that we can stop doing yes um that aren't working because we can't just build a system on top of other systems you really have to think about um what's working what's not working and build it that way so a big part in this next slide speaks to what you just said Dr Mario um is really to also what requires further analysis I didn't agree and I want to say that really the both slides could actually fall under both categories right because even to understand um how to go deeper you also have to understand where you are where you are standing and what do we need to do next So to that end we've also identified ways in which we'd want to focus and so on this slide you can see these priorities here that emerged as areas that maybe they don't fall in the implementation Focus but they fall on the inquiry and better more analysis Focus right it doesn't mean that there isn't going to be continued effort we have people across the system who are working on these different layers and that's part of my work which is to gain better understanding of who's owning what part of the strategy who focusing who's got Let's uh there's uh smart goals or what we call Key performance indicators a metric a metric to know that today I'm starting here at the end of the day I'm going to be there so part of my entry work has been to talk to people say which part is your part where do you see yourself in this Vision do you see yourself in this vision and if not what what becomes a part of our work as we shift I know that the cabinet members of our I should say District leadership team are extremely committed to making sure that wherever we go next has some holistic and engagement from everybody in the community um can I interrupt you yeah I've been thinking a lot about this for the last couple weeks and I think it's very I think important to say a lot of people say can we just focus on the fact that we are this is education it's about education it's about math it's about literacy it is and there's no doubt that we are all here about education we are also a business we are we are the largest employer in Kendall County this is a business and so being able to understand that if if you and your cabinet can put together the business that functions really well it automatically allows the Educators to do their job and so we have to focus on both of those things we do have a dual purpose we have to run a business with 17 000 plus uh consumers of education and with 2500 employees and surrounding um other governing bodies that rely on us as well so um again to talk about what we needed in a leader but also in as we move forward with our priorities and our vision is that we have to run a business effectively so my entry so when we think about the role that I am playing and in my entry and partnership with the cabinet and with principals and staff and our Union leadership is to really start to think about what are the coherent practices what are the things we are doing right now how do we build on those how do we how do I support those how do I support alignment in this system to really promote our social emotional learning and our climate for learning as well as that sense of connection and belongingness right we all want to feel like we're a part of it so that's the first thing right so how do we build upon this strengthen it what's happening and the two questions I ask people is what is our intent and our impact right so that's a way to help the system start to think about how to improve itself second thing is really is really start to identify and engage and really what's driving our high quality curriculum to your point about instruction right so what does what's the high quality curriculum what's the use of our standards in supporting those the curriculum the second part of that is what does the what is the caliber what is happening with instruction how are people learning how do Educators have opportunities to learn about their own instruction how do principals learn about instruction how do we as District leadership learn about a structure and then assessment is naturally one of the ways right an assessment doesn't just have to be a paper a digital test um but assessment what are the ways in which we're assessing our instruction and really monitoring student outcomes and then really a big priority that the board has put before me is really to prioritize really understanding our finances and strengthening our financial profile and so for me that's about laying a strong foundation and understanding what those and part of that work is um really going to have to be in terms of really auditing the system and really looking at our current our past audits but also future audits of what's happening in our um so one of the works that the leadership team and I did is we really looked at okay so here are the priorities you've identified as you're entering the district and then here are the priorities that you have a board is identified and so is there intersect is there is there a connection across these and we use the the mod you know a Venn diagram and I want to thank Dr Waller and Faith dalquist for their assistance and really helping create this visual of this and so kind of there's some connection between them clearly really I think all of them are our priorities right and so ultimately it's really here that the boards our recommendation is that the board has identified these four key areas for this coming year that would for both implementation but also analysis team any no okay um one other part of the activity we did and what you're going to see on this next these next two slides are when we were looking through Envision 308 what we found was what we call almost supportive element strategies in Envision 308 and so when we thought about them we created kind of like a nesting effect of like here's the big goal and then what are the types of support priorities that really lead up to this bigger goal and so this is a draft um again this this whole thing is a draft to kind of really show our thinking um as some initial processing and so we saw that there were things that are nested within the priorities to help achieve these goals so for example maintain safe and nurturing learning environments absolute foundational to improving in math you can't create high quality outcomes in terms of student engagement and learning if you're not having a safe right so that the goal isn't just to create a nurturing and safe environment the goal is to improve literacy and math achievement how do we get there is you by using some of these other stuff for anybody who's in the system listening tonight um this is a reminder that every person who's got a part of this this Mission and the strategy has is important part to play can I just say I thank you for articulating how all of this is to help students achieve yes and so um it's all the same yes it's awesome I also appreciate because we type we did talk about this at The Retreat as well kind of the nest you describe it as nesting like these things that support the major priorities and as I look through it I can tell which makes sense that some of them are repeated and like the reduce you know there are some you know supportive priorities that support both you know Improvement in literacy and math as well as you know your SEL plan and so I think that is a good strategy to hit all the priorities in an Envision 308 and I'm interested as we move on to see how all those supportive priorities are enveloped in the processes you'll take to look at systems and so you see again with our district-wide plan to support behavior and social emotional health of all students similar structure and then so this is really where I would say this is a long-term articulation of where I would say that we are going to move towards right so how do we enact this right so this is just a not not just but this is a vision for where we would move towards over the next year and Beyond really which is that there's a and I would say that I want to start with on the right side so this visual that you see currently is kind of a traditional approach where you have board priorities that inform District Administrative goals plans which then informs School Improvement plan which then inform teacher teams right leading to increased social emotional health and academic achievement and we have within that are Envision 308 now I'm going to flip this a little bit on its head right and so part of our our our our approach is that really Workforce collaboration and my theory one of the things that the board was very interested when I joined this community was how do we do this in partnership with our unions and how do we do this in partnership with partnership with our Educators and so there's a term there's Workforce collaboration and so that is really engaging in a partnership with our Educators to rethink this the schematic and so if you were to Envision the arrows moving upwards right so our Educators help inform our district leadership plans our our school Improvement plans help inform our district plans and that will then in turn inform our board priorities now that is a two to three year plan where we are today is really in this term in this schematic of where we stand today and I'm working on establishing some partnership work so that we can bring in our education to partner with us in this in this leadership work can I just make a comment about this live yeah I like this slide and I'm thinking about it from a reporting standpoint and I think when we think about the priorities in the district and if we're being successful I think it all I feel funny sometimes I guess it's not a hierarchy it's just really a flow chart but but my point is is that when we're considering the district admin plans and the board priorities I think it's it'll be good for us to understand from a school perspective because the schools and the performance of the schools make up the district's goals and plans and divorce priorities so for us to be able to see not only how well the district is doing but how well are the are the schools doing individually because it gives us an the ability to start thinking about it from an equity perspective and you know even drill down to the of course when we say culture and climate from the teachers because if we take care of the teachers they take care of the students but I just think that it'll help us to have a greater understanding of how the district is doing globally if we also understand how each individual school so when the reporting comes back we can see both really we truly are the sum of all these different parts right and that really makes a difference in our in our everybody knows their role and their part well that actually dovetails with the last slide which is that what this idea that that we have to measure and that which is um how we can measure our progress and so these are tools that I'm using that we're using internally which is when we think about accountability who's really on who's overall responsible who's these needs assaulted on the work who needs to be informed in the work in working with board members really thinking about when we talked about spheres of influence right and so what's the sphere of influence of a Cabinet member versus a principal versus the impact the teacher has on our system and so these are just different tools to help us that I've identified in our work we started um I really like this because you know one of the things that jumps out in my mind is you know um Dr Kincaid you do a great job with um with all of our grants and and so forth and not maybe not all but a good chunk right right yeah and um you know I think about like consulted I think about spheres of influence and I think about like the fact that the federal government is trying to cut Title One funds 80 and what that would mean to our district and so suddenly that becomes reaching out to community members which you know I've done in the last couple weeks to make sure that they're touching face with those who are supposed to represent us on a federal level because that would be um a hit to say the least and granted it's just one example but I really like this because it really does involve all of us I mean you know great work that Dr Kincaid does but also the the strength that we need from our community members and also what we need from our federal representatives to help to help us those are all pieces and just that's one example but all pieces that are involved I like that to your meet Jared so this is in my project management world this week we have two things that really um solidify what we do a racy chart and um a project management schedule and those two things are very important to any project and I should say a governance chart as well but when we talk about Clarity and we talk about focusing on goals it's really hard if everybody attacks it together but nobody knows what Lane they belong in and that Clarity is really important and it also makes you say oh wait a second we haven't informed this person or we haven't informed this group or we haven't let this group know I think as we move forward as you're building these systems and putting in these um guard rails it is going to become very apparent where those holes are and a lot of times people kind of feel like accountability is a gotcha like oh you're not doing it and I always like to flip it and say no it's how we figure out where we need to sources and so I think this will be very helpful and one of the things that I struggled with with Envision 308 is not understanding where something belonged and how we were following it and so that is um obviously just very exciting to see a second which you both just said I just have a question about this site in particular at the bottom it says reports on progress on these goals will be shared in October January March and may I hear that as a proposal as a proposal from you know the superintendent to the board my question is and maybe this is still to be decided but when you say goals are we talking about the priorities and then are also at what level can we expect reporting are we going to have a report on the district admin goal the school Improvement plan you know like that is something I'm trying to imagine to help us better think about what to expect so two things I thank you for that question and there's been a routine right so the Strategic plan and I mentioned kind of joining incoherence as I enter joining in as part of the rhythm of what this district has had as practices and so and bringing attention and reflection about what are the intentions what are the impact right so those two things but I didn't want to immediately remove the Rhythm and the pattern of the learning that the system already has and so I'm going to ask Faith to speak a little bit to what that Rhythm and pattern has been to date and how we may would consult about making some of those adjustments what we have been doing with Envision 308 is having a almost a monthly report from different departments on what of those progress and then having a beginning of the year at September of what are the intricacies we're wanting to accomplish within for this school year and then the mid-year progress that we've sometimes done in person then sometimes we've given via report and then the end of the year piece as well I think the feeling with this is going to be more around those board and common priorities and show how the supportive priorities from Envision 308 feed into that creating measurable goals so you can say this is what we're going to do you know who is responsible accountable the whole racy piece and then looking at what are the detailed plans and being able to give quarterly or every other month reports on how far along our journey that we said we would be are we there'll be alignment as we're talking with our administrators this week about the priorities that we have here how they align to the school Improvement plans and our school Improvement plans Focus around literacy math behavioral and social emotional so we'll see how that funnel if you will have that graphic from those other pieces fit into that and we've still got some work to do to talk about the specifics we wanted to make sure we're on the same place together and then build those plans so more details coming as a note of encouragement and I'm only one board member but I like the idea of hearing reports specifically about the priorities we have this continuous conversation all year long about the for the four priorities we should be able to name them we should be able to name them to our community members it's hard to name everything in strategic or in Vision 308 because there's so much um so I know that there's still more discussion to be had about how to report out but that would be my personal encouragement so I have a question is this uh then are we moving towards let's say we have another board meeting a week from now uh adoption of these as the form of board priorities and that may be something to and I think that so I want to thank the board for your feedback and Reflections this was really a collaborative effort everybody involved we had executive leadership teams who part members of the executive leadership team who participated in the reflection work we have Dr zumke this evening Brian executive director for human resources also weighed in as we were thinking and planning for this evening's presentation and Dr Waller as well may I ask you a question before we move on you've I know you've only had two um but do you feel that what you've heard from the community in your meet and greets thus far reflect what you're seeing up here so uh for let's say 90 yes there are some things that are still I think if those are priorities that would emerge from students because I haven't met with a lot of students to be honest with you I've met some students so I think but in terms of from but for the majority of the priorities absolutely very much reflected feel free to let us know what those are and how we can incorporate them in the future yes so you know how you talked about nesting and that there were going to be some supportive priorities yes how they're going to be some supportive priorities and so every time I look at this I get overwhelmed because so is there a way to like maybe color code this slide if because if we're going to keep using it it needs to be reflective of what you just went through which is some of the things up there are supportive priorities and some are the priority itself so if we color coded it we would kind of know what was supportive and what was not because just looking at that that way that's not where what you what you are articulating I think that so I did just I just really good point I I agree this is overwhelming and but it's overwhelming for us imagine just a regular Community member checking in to figure out what we're working on a suggestion I do think there's maybe something we can do graphically to kind of look at that but also if we think if if we decide and you know look for proof I don't know if it's a vote on board priorities based on what we heard tonight maybe there's even a new graphic that emerges from that so we know what help like I've said this before help us tell the story to the community about what our priorities are if I say we have a strategic plan it's Envision 308 and they go here they don't know what's happening and so I think it's contingent upon us and the superintendent along with you all to help tell the story of the community of what our priorities are and like I said we should be able to name them you know math and literacy social emotional learning like that speech yeah an elevator speech correct I shared a um uh some past strategic plans formatting one page formatting with Dr Calgary that I think answers all of your questions and I know you're already working on yeah yeah we wanted to before we I think it was important to hear your feedback this evening um before we we raised something to crystallize because sometimes when it goes too far out then you're like wait where were we starting from right so it's a little bit of where we felt the conversation with the board ended with these priorities and then move to extension what those workflow or graphics Mary Jo is there anything else no no I uh I think everyone is pretty well articulated what what okay okay I have a motion to go into closed session okay I make um a motion to go into closed session um or I'm sorry I make a motion to move to closed session following action items 8.1 through 8.5 second Miss simultan aye Miss venmuth aye Mr pluger aye Dr Mario aye Miss Johnson aye Mr Saron aye Mr Gatewood aye okay 8.1 action item approval of New Oswego High School Marquis can I have a motion please make a motion to award the contract for the new Oswego High School Marquis to Aurora sign company and the amount of 53 577.58 second myth aye aye simultane I Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Mr ploger aye motion passes 7-0 action item 8.2 approval of athletic training contract can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the athletic training contract with Athletico as presented second whoop whoop s sorry before we second pending attorney approval I miss I Mr cloaker aye Mr Cerrone aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms venmuth aye Miss Johnson aye motion passes 7-0 action item 8.3 approval of agreement with Community cares can have a motion please make a motion to approve the agreement with Community cares as presented second Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Dr Mario aye Ms van Smith aye Mr ploger aye Ms simultan aye Mr Cerrone aye motion passes 7-0 action item 8.4 approval of Transportation tracking technology can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the upgraded transportation technology with synovia Solutions second and I have a question um well you shouldn't be surprised by this one I don't know if you'll have an answer yet um but it has to do with the ID cards yeah the RFID cards and um you know yeah yeah so I so after our conversation the other day Dominic did you introduce yourself Mike the Armin director of Transportation with District 308.
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hello after seeing everybody just recently I forgot I needed to do that so thank you for letting me be here tonight to and I want to thank you Mike for taking attention and before we answer this question just to really this community has had a lot of concern about the transportation and as I've entered to Congress had about some of the priorities for preparing for the school year we're excited about some of the changes we know that we're not going to over promise but we are committed to ensuring that students are arriving safely and I wanted to thank week of really really preparing this so there was a question would you clarify the question of Dominic just about well um this program you know after reimbursement it's it's negligible on the amount of money that it would cost incremental to what we are already paying for something much much less one of the things that I wasn't sure about was the cost of the RFID cards which is a potential use of this so that a student all you need is an RFID Card and then they're checked in on the bus and they're being able to be tracked right there's a manual way around if that's becomes a financial burden but I just wanted to find out what that um what that looked like financially what that card would be um yeah so like say it's a proximity card um I've only only spoken to the vendor that they recommended initially so I just got that information just today because we I think we spoke earlier last week but uh um and I know there's other vendors out there that I will look at but uh the pricing that they gave us for the number of cards we would need would be about 1.75 per card okay now there is also a a printing solution that they offer that so we can print our own cards right on the spot and depending on how many printers you get probably the number we would use for the number of buildings we'd have would probably be about about a thousand dollars a year per printer so so you're looking probably another almost eighty thousand per year probably something like that and would that be would there be a reimbursable yeah would it be at the 75 or would this also like take the place of a student ID and therefore you know yeah I was still looking into that I haven't got that far into that yet I know so even even if it it's still not a it was eighty thousand eighty thousand dollars we could reimbursed a decent amount yeah um still not to the public this is a vast Improvement so and again not over promising and the RFID cards even if we were to say not use those there is a manual solution and there is manual solution not not the not the most ideal though right correct all right thank you Dominic time timeline for rollout yes I think that was yeah what jumped yeah if you want to jump to down right there so Senator rollout um would be we would start actually equipment installation probably right around uh Labor Day right around that time we can start the installation of equipment and all our buses we would plan then to start doing kind of a soft roll out on the on the parent app the mobile app early at the beginning of October with the intent of rolling full doing a full rollout mid-october to November just in time hopefully for the cooler weather and then then for the ridership process or ridership program uh we'd be looking at like a soft rollout in December and then finally for the turn-by-turn solution uh probably a soft rollout for that by January so in the interim it would just correct the things I wanted to share the conversation that uh Dr Mario and Michael Dr Calgary and I had was there's two major parts to transportation and when we look at this from a big picture perspective one is the piece that we're talking about today and approving the other is routing and we have another year with the routing that we approved last year which is using an outside Source we still have to figure out how all this works together symbiotically and get better at that and so Mr diamont he obviously has a lot on his plate right now but I did ask for the board to see what everything looks like on like one sheet of paper and what all the costs are involved so um this is definitely a step in the right direction but we still have to solve for the fact that we're going to continue to have routing issues until we make some sort of investment in um routing software ourselves so I just want to make sure that everybody understands that I know it's something that Mrs simultane and I have been trying to um uh really nail down over the last couple years and it's still something that remains you know we have a year to go on this contract for this school year but something we're going to have to start talking about um again yeah so just just so we're maybe getting trying to help everybody understand so the contract that we we signed with first planning Solutions was not for routing software it was for actual a router Personnel correct right so so the solution to that to resolve that with is to solidify my staff and get my staff in a position where they can do the routing themselves the new employees that I've hired so and to get a and to hire a uh sped coordinator that does our sped routing so for special services routing so so that's it's not necessarily a uh a software issue as much as it is a personality no I know but that's what I'm that's I guess what I'm trying to get down to boil it down is there's all these parts and we we keep we continue to see them individually instead of the whole picture of what it takes to run the trans what are the resources that it takes to run the transportation department and so I think for the benefit of the new board members for the benefit of Where Mrs simultane and I worked with you during negotiations and talking about all the things that you need we need to see that in a more holistic presentation versus like the one-off asks and that's what we talked about the other day in our meeting so I wanted to share it with my colleagues I I appreciate that um and that is definitely a commitment of ours and I know that I'll invite um for I'll request that Mike and John be prepared to share in September an update on how transportation is launched for the school year I think it'll be important for us to be prepared to reflect on what are the procedures that were put in place what's the communication that was enacted and what is the workflow of the budget of what's Happening as we looked at so I know that it'll be it'll be timely because we will be right into the school year and in for those watching in the rest of the presentation you will see in there both the challenges that we observe during the Spring and the solutions and um do you want us as we come to I don't know if there are many more questions but I did want to leave give Mr Mike uh opportunity to say any more you'd like to say about anything that you noticed with your presentation tonight um I I guess first off I want to say that you know I hope you guys understand how bested I actually am in the in this process because not only am I director of Transportation but I'm also the parent of four SD 308 students so who ride the bus so so it is in my best interest uh because I have a boss at home who wants our kids to get to school on time in a safe manner so it's it is in our best interest my best interest both personally and professionally to succeed in here so um you know is Dr Calgary and I were talking and we getting to know each other a little bit and but it came down you know it came very clear that we needed to take a deeper dive a more more deep look into um the concerns of the community and to also better understand those root causes of what what what the issues are you know and sometimes it's easy to hear the you know the noise but to actually understand what what what is underneath that's really causing the problem so so um I don't know if you you want me to go through the whole thing just this particular slide will be important to share as we think about the year yeah so this will be the most important so yeah so looking at you know these are some of the issues that we we identified so Staffing shortage um you know that was you know people were tired of hearing us say that I get I get several emails or phone calls I got several emails phone calls last year saying there's no such thing as Staffing shortage anymore there's plenty of drivers well just uh just as I was fiddling through my uh my news reel here before I came up here I actually came across one that says 8 000 Chicago public school students won't have bus service on the first day of school due to being short of 1 300 drivers can I add on to that real quick I don't even interrupt you but yeah you know as as the son of a truck driver right who uh one of the things that I've heard plenty of times right and and uh you know brag a little bit there's sometimes you might see a truck with my last name on it right that was my father's company right and you know you can make good money as a truck driver and one of the things that I've heard in the community is well just tell the truck drivers to come and part-time and help and I you know my dad would love to have made what what some some not saying all but what some truck drivers make and and to think that they're going to come off these routes that they have I mean my dad did long hauls it's just not I don't know how to explain this that the way the market is set up for the you know the labor market that's not going to be a feasible solution yeah I'm trying to be diplomatic but I wanted to add on to that yeah no and I appreciate that and as somebody who's been in the transportation both Trucking industry and busing um you know there it's a different different ball game I mean it's I mean hauling 40 you know 80 000 pounds of freight that doesn't talk back to you that doesn't give you any kind of grief yeah it's a very different game than than driving a bus with you know trying to drive UH 60 kids that are loud noisy and screaming in your ear so but uh but thank you for your point there so getting back on point here uh so our response was that to that the Staffing shortage um we really worked hard last year for the the contract negotiations with and getting the new CBA with increased wages and and a very healthy what I consider a very healthy uh attendance bonus so that was a good success there uh Professional Services Services shortage so I don't know for those that weren't aware the pre-covered first student and septran are providers and with the Professional Services we're between the two we're somewhere around probably 60 to 70 buses that they were providing a year last year they provided between the two of them we had less than 30.
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routes that they covered for us so we were able to get new contracts with new providers or one new provider New Durham school service and then septran but this time we implemented route minimums in our contracts with them so they're they have to provide us 25 routes each at a minimum and that's in contractor there will be penalties the other issue that we really struggled with especially early on was you know getting our bus notification getting late bus notifications out to families in a timely manner we did work really hard with Teresa and her team and Communications to try to become more efficient and try to use the the platform that we had to the best of its ability and I I did we did see Improvement but there was still room that we could improve there one of the other things I kept hearing from parents especially parents of junior high and high school parents it was that their students aren't receiving the notifications of the buses being late the platform that we're on or the platform that we were on blackboard was only sinning for the most part messages to parents and so if the parents weren't home then they had to reach out to their students and and vice versa if the student was home and the bus hadn't shown up well the student that was reaching out to the parent trying to find Hayes did you get a bus message or not so what we did then we wanted to look into an application a mobile app that will go beyond the parents that will can include the students if the students have mobile devices one of the things challenges we also felt like we were have experienced especially when you're short staffed is you know supporting your drivers the drivers that are working hard working more hours than they're used to working more hours than they want to work a lot of times and then keeping them safe while they're out there working those hours and working hard so one of the things we believe would be a great addition to supporting them and and making a tough job a little less tough is a turn-by-turn navigation system that would be supported by the GPS platform also and then the last piece that we want to do would be is is fiscally responsible and try it as best as we can to optimize our loads in our buses we don't want we don't want to bus with only only half full and we don't want to bust with 20 kids more than its capacity we want we want to be in that sweet spot so which is you know Comfort safety and then using our equipment to the best of its ability for what it's made for so um so those things that we looked at you know looking at those criteria we were looking for a bus tracking or an ETA bus app for parents and students with the ability to integrate multiple GPS providers I say that because our contractors and on our different GPS platform than what we are so we wanted to be able to integrate their GPS systems into ours for that so that everybody can be seen we also wanted to have that ability to in addition to our mass communication platform that the district has we wanted to be able to additionally send out push notifications out to the app if there's buses running late or we can send individual messages per bus out and then that student ridership piece to maximize that load that load optimization the turn by turn and then also a time and attendance piece that most of those systems that we looked at have so that would give us an opportunity to centralize that on into that platform and we'd be able to remove the time and attendance that we currently use and then the project implementation timeline was another key piece so so that was key piece so so this evening the recommendation to yep so the recommendation is that we would go with synovia Solutions and there here comes the bus parent app we currently have synovia is our provider um so we would actually um just it would be kind of an equipment refresh it would like I said it integrates the parent the contractor's GPS it gives us the student ridership the turn by turn the time and attendance we actually have contracts with them for our current Service as I said they would actually we would give us credit for our contracts and we would start fresh with a new contract and then the implementation is going to be you know long term you know 10 to 12 weeks yeah yeah we already made the motion this time open aye Dr Mario aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Gatewood aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms venmuth aye Mr cloger aye motion passes 7-0 thank you Mike thank you thank you thank you action item 8.5 approval of resolution providing the issue of General obligation refunding School bonds can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed seven million dollars General obligation refunding School bonds of the school district for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds of said School District providing for the levy of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the principal and interest on said bonds authorizing the sale of said bonds to the purchasers thereof and authorizing the execution of certain escrow agreements in connection therewith as presented second I have a question yeah um have any assumptions changed Dr petsky do you want to introduce yes is our PMA consultant and Bob Lewis will uh he's been working very hard on putting together the bond sale for us I'll let him answer where we were and where we are yeah thank you pardon me thank you for having me here tonight uh so the month of July you know the economic news was uh favorable mostly for the bond market CPI PC deflator both coming in at or below expectations those are two different inflation reports which has been the Big Driver of market conditions the last 18 months so interest rates are roughly where they were at the last time you saw this presentation um we were on the more conservative side s main savings last time so our estimate as of today refreshing the rates is probably about 80 000 higher on a present value basis so our current estimates right around 465 000 I think the memo had 000 so um just from a pure dollar instead of a present value right this is what are those numbers now uh and yeah in the past 580 000 over the life of the body versus 500.
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previously it was 437. okay um and is this getting executed tomorrow it can be executed as early as tomorrow the subject to board approval so that's oh I'm sorry if I wasn't talking to Mike um that's all I had I have a question so what interest rate are we looking at now as opposed to what we were last time yeah the estimated interest rate is 3.44 it's a true interest cost it's a composite rate I think the when I emailed you last time it was 3.7 so okay I know and that was just Market it was Market but you know is there's about seven basis points that was Market change in your favor and the other portion was just a little bit of conservative estimate okay okay I appreciate you baking that in the conservatives yeah that's all I had what I Dr Maria aye Miss Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr ploger aye Mr s hi motion passes 7-0 action item 8.6 approval of District administrator 8.1 going into closed yeah can I have motion to go into closed session make a motion to enter closed session under statutes 5 ilcs 120 T 2 C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of certain employees and individuals bye bye LCS 120-2 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees
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welcome to the August 1st 2023 regular meeting of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission for detailed information on meeting procedures please review the full printed meeting agenda provided mix Kelly will you please call the roll commissioner weish here commissioner Clark here commissioner Hammerschmidt here commissioner Salve here commissioner Abrams here council member dish commissioner Mills and commissioner Lee are noted absent in advance I will make a staff note at this time that six members are required to affirmatively approve any action and staff do recommend postponing items today after closing the public hearings to the next regular session which will be on August 15th noted thank you we're now on to approval of the agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda moved by commissioner weish seconded by commissioner sovay is there any discussion on the agenda okay all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed the motion carries item four minutes of the previous meeting we have no minutes this evening forwarded for review moving on to item five reports to the Planning Commission and written Communications so council member dish isn't here so it's noted that city council hasn't met since our last convening reports from planning mix Kelly do you have anything to report just a note for the comprehensive plan that staff are in the process of scheduling interviews with other City staff and stakeholders for the final week of August is there an available overall schedule for the comprehensive plan process yeah I can share that I'll share that with the Planning Commission that would be great thank you any other commission officers or committee Liaisons have anything to report I missed orc so yeah commissioner I can report an orac we met last week the 25th of July and we discussed uh the work program uh upcoming relative to things accomplished uh early discussion on drive-throughs and there's some actually homework uh given out so as a working commission we're looking at some different examples from cities and those are the two things that we're working towards great thank you and then written Communications there are written Communications included in today's packet for review okay we're on to item number six public comment so this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about an issue that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely press star nine if listening by phone or use the raise hand feature viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers who've raised their hand using the last three digits of their phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area mute television or background sounds so we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time thank you chair Abrams Ken Garber 20 Henry Hill Court at your June 6th meeting you approve some setback adjustments to the Lockwood Senior Living PUD now under construction on Ellsworth minor matter but during the discussion commissioner dish asked Mark Lockwood if the building would use electric heat as agreed Lockwood had promised Council that the building would be all electric except for the commercial kitchen Mr Lockwood replied to commissioner dish that no they were going with gas heat he explained that he needed a waiver from mishta to go electric and quote that waiver request was submitted and was not approved end quote now when I heard this I could not believe that mishta would deny this waiver when it routinely granted so I submitted a foia request to mishta turns out I was right yes Lockwood asked for a waiver but Mr did not deny the request instead Marianne vukanich Mrs Chief Architect wanted more information about the city's wishes for this project she sent this internal message quote if the Ann Arbor city council makes a stand against the use of gas for HVAC and water heaters I'll waive that requirement to keep the project moving end quote Lockwood never followed up so Mr Lockwood may be technically correct when he said that the waiver was not approved but neither was it denied no final decision was made Lockwood just dropped it we know that Mr never required gas for this project because in May the foyer shows Lockwood asked mischief to let it change from one gas water heating system to another wrote this to Mr Lockwood good morning Mark while we don't object to gas-fired boilers and Senior developments didn't Ann Arbor want the building to be all-electric powered to which Mr Lockwood replied hi Marianne Ann Arbor did initially want the all-electric but they acquiesced to the mission of design standards and permitted gas heat and water end quote so here we have Mr assuming the building was electric and Mr Lockwood telling them the city told him to use gas after all then to you on June 6 he blamed mishta for the gas this is like a kid telling his mom daddy said I could do it and then telling his dad mommy said I could do it and since mommy and daddy aren't speaking no one's the wiser bottom line you were lied to and counsel was lied to mishta is not to blame but someone at the city is Mr was prepared to Grant the waiver and Lockwood wrote Council letter was quote committed to doing all electric heat end quote but some City official behind closed doors told Lockwood to go ahead with gas I can only think that when it comes to climate it's just a game of pretend plausible deniability and you and I we're the suckers we're the losers in this game anyone else present that would like to speak at this time okay is there anybody that would like to address US remotely actually hand was just raised a phone number ending in 465 you permission to address the commission hello am I am I being heard yes okay thank you my name is Edward yomedi I'm at 1210 Brooklyn Avenue I make a comment only that the minutes of the previous meeting are not available for you uh the Planning Commission and other City commissions have had a history of uh non-timely uh minutes production I thought that that problem had been solved by addition of Staff but apparently it hasn't um and I will be sending a formal request to the clerk four minutes for the previous meeting as soon as they're available uh draft minutes are supposed to be made available uh very promptly after minutes uh are produced um there's a statutory requirement for that so very disappointed that the record of this body's work is not being memorialized promptly thank you thank you there are no other hands raised at this time thank you we'll move on to item seven public hearings for the next business meeting a public hearing on the following items will be held at the Planning Commission meeting for Tuesday August 15th 2023 at 7 pm the first is 3680 Packard Road which is Blossom Dental for City Planning Commission approval this is a proposed 13 273 square foot one story dental office on a 1.21 acre vacant parcel which is zoned office a 29 car parking lot will also be constructed with shared access to the adjacent property and the uh the second hearing is for proposed amendments to front setback regulation in the tc1 zoning District to measure setbacks from Curb edges instead of lot lines changes will affect chapter 55 of the unified development code section 5.16.3 use specific standards for commercial uses and may also affect 5.17.4 mixed use zoning districts and proposed section 5.17.7 thank you we're now on to item 9A our first item of regular business this is a petition for 2805 Burton Road the bright Dawn Village site plan Amendment for Planning Commission approval this is a proposal to reduce the size of the indoor Gathering building by approximately two thousand square feet adjust sidewalks and utility leads to relocate barrier-free parking and make electric vehicle charging updates per current edition of the unified development code on an eight Acre Site zoned r4b multi-family residential the staff recommendation is approval um I'm seeing in my notes that there is no partition or presentation this evening so we'll move to the staff presentation um yeah just a very high level for both this petition the following um we are going to keep both obviously the petitioner and the staff presentation brief because we don't have uh enough members to take action on the property our recommendation is to hold the public hearing solicit any public comment and then we would be recommending a postponement after the public hearing to the August 15th meeting the only thing that I would suggest is if you have any initial questions or thoughts that would be helpful for either the petitioners or staff to make sure we address when the full presentation comes back to the Planning Commission on the 15th please feel free to raise them before you take any action to postpone and we can make sure that we address that foreign just that overview um just to reiterate as you put in the agenda the proposed changes are uh a new Clubhouse it's a smaller Clubhouse than originally proposed uh parking lot reconfiguration both for barrier-free parking and some um grading changes to improve the some of the visibility of some of those uh those areas uh as part of those required submittal they are bringing the site into compliance with our revised EV parking standards uh you'll see in the staff report the adjustments to those as well um and it is a Planning Commission for a site plan for Planning Commission approval with those changes thank you then we'll move now to the public hearing an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about the proposed project on Burton Road we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during the public hearing remotely press star nine if by listening by phone or use the raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers who've raised their hand using the last three digits of their phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute television or background sounds so we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anybody present that would like to speak at this time thank you as if you hadn't haven't had enough of me already tonight um Ken Garber again um this is another gas burning development and this may be an opportunity to push for this community building to be heated electrically with a heat pump and to offset some of that electricity with rooftop solar um that's my only comment thank you thank you is there anybody else present who would like to speak at this time do you see anybody on the zoom next Kelly no I'm there are no uh hands raised all right we will close the public hearing so we're in discussion about a proposed motion and the motion is to postpone to the August 15th Planning Commission meeting and place this item under unfinished business does anybody want to move for that moved by commissioner sove seconded by commissioner weish we're now under we're now in discussion does anybody wanna anybody have anything they want to ask or clarify raise nothing I only had one thing um it says in the report that this that there was um it says quote the petitioner sent postcard notifications to Residents within 500 feet of this site staff has received emails in opposition to this project that are forwarded to the Planning Commission but I don't see anything about whether anybody attended that participation meeting and if they did if there's a report because of the scale this no meeting was required only notification of adjacent property got it okay any other questions or comments commissioner Hammerschmidt yeah I guess um for when they come back I would just want to hear although I won't be here um I would want to hear um why they are reducing the size um and if there is a potential then if it's already size to make the building fully electric and add solar in this new plan that they have all right if there are no other comments uh we just do this as a voice Voice vote is fine for a postponement okay so Voice vote um on the postponement all in favor say aye or raise a hand I any opposed motion carries okay we're on to item nine B uh 1800 Washington Avenue Evan's house for Scholars special exception use for Planning Commission approval this is a request to increase the occupancy from 65 to 85 no proposed changes to the exterior of the house located on this 0.85 acre parcel zoned r2b2 family dwelling the staff recommendation is approval um the petitioner is available for questions but is not prepared to present so we'll move to staff um just as summarized this is mostly an application because the previous special exception use limited the occupancy of that building they're proposing interior renovations to this property to increase the occupancy load of that that is proposed to increase from a maximum of 65 students up to 85 occupants as noted they're not proposing any physical changes to the site all of that will be internal no additional parking is required under our new elimination of minimum parking standards however because that special exception use does have a cap on that while normally under a permitted use this would be permissible just through a building permit that special exception use does have to be reconsidered and extended in order to provide for that increased occupancy similarly because you only have five members and it requires six affirmative votes I think it would be appropriate to postpone this to the August 15th meeting to provide the full commission the opportunity to hear the details further of that renovation and make a determination yeah great thank you so we'll now hold the public hearing for this item an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about the proposed project we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission than remote participants to speak during the public hearing remotely press star 9 if listening by phone or use the raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers who've raised their hand using the last three digits of their phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute television or background sounds so we may hear you more clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time hi I'm Jerry Kaplan from 506 to Arrowhead West Bloomfield Michigan I'm the architect for this project submitted the material to you I'm here basically to answer questions I think the project is clear in the intent you described it well and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer thank you is there anybody else present that would like to speak at this time so no questions so we'll just it's this is the public hearing so anybody who wants to speak can speak then we'll move into discussion and then if there are questions we'll call you back up so you can have a seat in the meantime thank you thank you anybody else present who would like to speak okay anybody who wants to address this remotely going once twice nothing great okay so now we're going to close the public hearing I'll read the proposed motion the motion is to postpone to August 15th Planning Commission and place this item under unfinished business moved by commissioner weish seconded by commissioner sovay we are now in discussion does anybody have any questions or comments on this item commissioner SoBe it's maybe you can address this now or be prepared to address this later I saw that the potential maximum occupancy was 107 but it's being requested at 85 is that a building code restriction or like would it require an addition to the building to meet that higher occupancy than requested no that's just the calculation based on fire safety requirements okay fire code okay so another code is more restrictive than the higher level occupancy right okay that's helpful thank you sure any other comments or questions commissioner white just a question to staff around can you just say more about this special exception use is it because it's a fraternity inside a residential zoning and so that's how it was that's how it got here and then the reason why it has to come back is because that original special exception use had a occupancy restriction and so could you just speak to why the original special exception use had a occupancy restriction especially when it could go up to 107 but was set at 65 and if in three years do they have to come back through this process to add another exception so hopefully that was like three questions sorry but I think you can grant them you're absolutely right it is here it was approved as a special exception because it is classified as a fraternity sorority or similar student housing Arrangement um the ordinance actually requires and the granting of a special exception use the occupancy is kept um that is based on some requirements of a certain amount of lot area per occupant uh and so that is uh that's a requirement of the issuance of a related special exception use so in this case that standard was made if it were amended to 85 and they wanted to exceed that in the future then yes then they would have to amend that or could consider asking for a higher uh level at this point to provide some some more flexibility in that longer term certainly the city could consider revising that language so it's not required that would not automatically likely retroactively apply because special exception uses can have other conditions applied to them but um so I think that addresses all the question if I missed anything let me know thank you on the drawing that we received in our packet did I only count 16 beds but were talking about 20 oh okay so I don't know staff or the architect what happened to the where are the other four beds going well there are no other four beds going at this time it's okay it's a capacity possibility so we're we're asking for 85 but you're only putting in six at this point we're adding 16 correct and but then that gives you the ability to add them later with no additional changes exactly okay and that meets the building code uh I can't speak to that but that's probably part of that difference right now that they're doing some programming based on building code requirements and um I'm grateful that I don't know whether it's the petition or staff had a conversation about building in some flexibility if those uh those changes that revolve or in that case if um a site plan if there was a desire to do an addition um and it was still within that special exception use capacity you might have the ability to do that without returning the special exception use as well okay okay those are my questions thank you we cannot I'll um I'll try to check with the building department and try to provide a more um definitive response on that when it comes back on the 15th everything commissioner survey maybe kind of add to the staff request to understand the level of like addition that would not have to come back here uh right because I like if they have to go through this process just to change the occupancy it's one thing but if they're doing it because they're doing a large enough addition to go through the process I just want to understand the Tipping Point to make sure to provide that flexibility sure more beds any other comments okay I think we're ready to take a Voice vote on this motion um so this is the motion to postpone to the August 15th meeting and place this item under unfinished business um all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion carries okay we're on to item 11.
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so I guess I'm curious where everybody else is at in terms of their feelings on whether they feel like whether everybody feels like this should be something that we just get through as a board or whether people are also thinking that we should have a more collaborative process I'm just curious where folks are at um just to add to that so for the past three years since this is my third year as a school board member we do have task force that do behavior um we have a committee I think Jesse sits on one of the Committees for the past three years we've had repetitive teachers come up and tell us that the discipline is an issue we had it in a study session I don't believe you were at that study shame because you weren't a board member yet but we have had these conversations and this is the only reason why I decided to take this because I feel like we've been branching off and creating that task for this task for doing this doing that and it's it's been happening since I've been in here and not one policy has been changed to reflect the things that we the good things that we are doing in the district so our jobs as school board members is yes to have Community input I feel like we've have had that um the past three years there's been task force there's been all these but it's also we are the policy makers of the school district that's what we got elected to do and in it is our responsibility to make sure that these policies stay up to date and that they stay to what the community is saying I don't think any of us up here have not heard I I feel and everybody can speak for themselves but going to schools and being involved this is a repetitive thing that I hear at every single school and there's never been a one time that I haven't gone to a school where some kind of behavior issue or some kind of like what's going on why are we doing this this way why are we doing that that way so this is why I decided that as elected officials of this district and of this community we should take the step and now letting the the community know this is what we're looking at this is how it's been vetted what do you guys think if there's more discussion but I I don't think adding on another task force to this would would change what I've already what I personally have already been hearing the past three years but that's just my sentiment and my thought on that if I could just so we have a policy BDF advisory committees as far as I know every committee that has gone on in this district has been a superintendent committee which has not been created or or designed by the board advisory committees under that policy are created by the board for specific purpose they have a Sunset date they have members who are chosen by the board to be on that committee superintendent and at least one member of the board no more than two obviously are going to be on can be on the committee um the only catch is that they follow open meeting law I guess where I'm coming from also is having been on the Phoenix Union Safety Committee for seven months and knowing how large that district is I get it that our committee didn't just deal with the issue of sros we dealt with safety as a whole and our recommendations to the board were just this like how to address student Behavior how to address so many of these things Within These policies and it was teachers students parents community members staff members all on that committee voicing what they thought should be kind of the priorities Within These policies and while I know we're policy makers I still believe that um I don't know that us just having some discussions at a board meeting given the amount of or I guess I should say the lack of public activity I've seen at our board meetings is enough to meet people where they're at and to get the voices that we need heard so for me when I'm saying that I'm saying I want something that's going to be transparent that's going to be an open meeting that's going to have people at the table from different uh from different uh I don't want I hate the term stakeholders I think it's stupid but no offense if you love it um whatever you know what I mean I want different people at the table and I want us to like actually have a conversation because I think also another thing is if we're summarily passing um policy things there's going to be you know no unknown unknowns there's going to be things that people might get mad at us about for like our opinion about but if I could sit down and have a conversation about the real impacts of some of these things and what it looks like and plays out like in the system I mean there's conversations that can really change heart and hearts and minds and maybe there's something I can hear from a teacher or staff member or parent that can also help me in deciding something that gives me information that I'm not necessarily always going to be aware of so that's where I'm coming from I'm not asking for a task force I'm not asking for to go to a committee that's going to go to die or committee to nowhere I hate those I think those are a waste of time and money and resources I am asking for a very specific thing I wasn't making a motion right now but that was essentially my suggestion that's why I'm clarifying it is something that's really going to dig into this and the whole work of the committee would be the beef and the substance of these policies and making sure there's something that people can can uh can buy into because I think that's another thing is that um the reason and maybe part of the reason and a big reason I'm just assuming this obviously that things are not being equitably administered is that folks don't have buy-in to things that they don't have ownership over or that they haven't helped created or that they don't feel like they can um really key into and so I think if we could come together and do this in a collaborative way uh then we can get more buy-in and and more Equitable Administration once we do adopt something because folks feel like they probably have some ownership over it and don't feel like they're getting forced stuff down their throat from the top down because I know in most service jobs mine education that's how it feels a lot of the time so so kind of that's just where I'm coming from overall and I think that that like these conversations for each one of these could be so I mean the notes that I took on these last night I mean the conversations for every single one of these I have so many things to say about every single one that's why I was like oh we're going to be here if we really want to do this tonight I will do it but that's why I just wanted to start off with that but I'll leave it at that Miss Ayers so I have a few things um along kind of the same line most of my questions are very general questions not like about a certain one um and I do appreciate that you're pushing us to move you know into this forward-thinking era like I did read through them last night when I was at the vet because I had a lot of time um so I did read through them and like a lot of them I was like this is this is good but I have some questions as well I'm obviously not a lawyer into that kind of thing but I guess I am not proficient enough to know if they align with like the Arizona State Standards um or statutes um and then I was thinking and I wasn't thinking along the line of um you know a committee or anything like that but I'm not opposed to it either these are just some general statements that I was thinking about um it looks like there's a lot of changes so I was just wondering um like on the district level what what would putting these things in place look like and what would be some of those strengths and what would be some of those challenges um so it's it was it's not negative or positive it's just some things that I was also thinking about as well thank you Miss Michaela um kind of similar like I'm not opposed to having some discussion tonight but I think the to truly do this change like it's deep change and it's good change and it needs to be our priority but I think it's gonna go beyond tonight because a lot of this is very balanced like finding the balance and the nuances because there's stuff in here that I fully support like just scratching it but that I do know is not in compliance with State Statute if we get rid of it and so we really need to navigate like where do we make changes because we can make changes to our policy but there's certain things that State statue would still override and how do we then refine our language to make sure that our priority and our mission aligns with where we're going while still understanding that at the end of the day like there are things we have to abide by um so I think there's just a lot of it's a lot of really meaty work to find that language that works rather than just eliminating things that like you said like there's a good chance lawyer will come back and say you have to include something about this and then we're kind of back at square one where we have to go okay well how can we include that language um because I agree with a lot of the changes it's just we're gonna have to find that balance um the other kind of going off sign you said and like the thought of bringing in an Advisory Board is one thing like there were sections in here that I think definitely need to be changed but I want to be careful about removing some of the like they weren't even necessarily controversial but it provides guidance to our leaders so we also have to keep in mind our school and District leaders are not going to go through all of the ARs they're going to look to the policy for kind of the Layman's versions of Step by Step so when we're navigating this we just need to make sure that we're putting things in place like not eliminating so much stuff that our leaders don't have guidance because we want to make sure there's no unintended consequences um because there are a few things and I'm like well if that guidance isn't there then we could end up having negative consequences for the child that was doing the discipline so there's a lot to it I'm not opposed to having an advisory but I think it needs to be very defined I also don't want to see another task force that goes on forever um but I don't think it's a bad idea having other people at the table while we are the policy makers getting that perspective from okay if I'm a principal how do I put this in action because that's very different than what we want to see but like what are the nuances of every day when this happens in that situation how is it handled so I'm not opposed to Advisory Board Miss Jeffrey um yeah so I Echo everything you guys say um and as you were as I was making my comments I just thought I would wait but I was thinking about wow cea you know wants to do like a a listening tour and it's about discipline you know because um I think I've heard from a lot of teachers um and parents that people feel like um there are no consequences for actions now this is a restorative practice way that we're going which I love we've been talking about restorative practices for eight years but the the sense seems to be that restorative practices means no consequences um so I do want to I do want to get feedback from our teachers um because I there is a sense out there that the kids are running wild you know and this is not what we're we're not trying to do that the board does not think I don't think kids should not face consequences for actions but things like suspensions long-term suspensions do not fix they just don't fix the problem and I don't think you know we really dug deep enough into restorative practices but I would like to hear you know have a listening tour have a committee I really think that's probably the right way to do it a board-appointed committee um with the right people on there um because I do think we need to have we've been trying to do this for eight years and it hasn't been working so I think this is a great very first step to bring all of these to us and say but then I think next step is to say okay Community let's get organized and let's get feedback from people because there will be unintended consequences from this stuff even when we go through a board-appointed committee um but I think we want to really be careful and review it um before we take it to Jessica and I think you know when I saw the Pendergrast um presentation at um nsba you know they they have committees for policy change and the um they said the attorney is the last person who sees it they get everybody at that table first including students um when they're making a policy change even if it's um uniforms right you know so I thought that was really great because they don't want the attorney in there too early um because we really do want to attempt to get feedback from everyone so I think I I was thinking this is yeah this is a beginning of a very long conversation about this but it's a great one to be tackling right now Mr Man any thoughts just it's it's actually really nice to just hear everybody's open thinking um I think everybody said something you know that kind of sat with me um I'm gonna be just brutally honest I don't know if that's like appropriate sitting up here or not like my first reaction to advisory committee was oh dear God another Community right um but then listening to the conversation it sounds like it's not the same type of committee as what we're used to um and then I have I have a perspective you know that I think there's two things that are happening here I think one of the things like I loved what um what president Kario doll said about you know we have these better practices but our policy doesn't reflect them so I think that's something that's really powerful for us to have policy that reflects the work that we're doing um and again I'm going to be brutally open and honest about something my frustration in you know hearing and having some conversations around State Statute is we're still Bound by Statute in some of these cases and it bothers me that some of the statutes are the way that they are so I also kind of see us making a shift where we can comfortably make the shift is almost a political statement as well and then I wonder if there's more we can do to advocate for changing those things at the state level because clearly what we're seeing come out of state policy is going the opposite direction of the conversation that we're having a night and it would be nice for this conversation to not only be the Genesis of us creating policies that more reflect you know the nature of what we want for our children and our community but also to be able to help push that forward at a state level because sometimes our hands are tied by those state level decisions and also because many of our neighbors we have some amazing Neighbors in this community you know feel the same way that we do and they're sort of you know held back by the same strictures of Statute as we do so I know in in having a had a very brief conversation with Jessica she's very happy to work through these things she's always expressed let me know what you're trying to do so I can see how close I can get you to that um and so I think we'll have a strong partner there but I I do agree um with the feedback from Pendergast the the board member mcshaffrey shared that probably the best place for that to live is after whatever other vetting we've done so we don't like have to send her eight different versions and have her weigh in on eight different versions of what we're looking at doing um and then I heard a couple of folks use my favorite word um unintended consequences or some permutation thereof um I do think one of the things we need to be really aware of like the one thing that struck me as I looked through it is some of the changes to the time frames and one of the things I'd like us to back people who know me know I'm a big fan of seven habits of highly effective people so one of the habits is begin with the end in mind and I always like to backwards engineer things so I want to make sure we look at some of those things so there's some places where we say um in this version well for any suspension over one day it requires a hearing but is it practicable like does that create a situation that's impossible logistically because there's also notification requirements so can you schedule get a hearing office officer and get the notification out in the time frame that's prescribed now that doesn't mean that that shouldn't be our standard but then I guess the question would be is there a way we can frame that so that way it doesn't create those challenges with being able to implement hopefully that makes sense as an example um but you know by and large conceptually sentimentally and then I guess I'm kind of pushing it further with like let's push it further we I really do feel like this is the right work for us to be doing right now and I don't know if it's because people have been reading this or if it's because um it's just where we're at as a community and as a board and as a leadership team but a lot of what I heard in the board reports tonight also very much aligned with the work that's embedded Within These policy changes so um Miss thank you for that Mr Man um Gibson McLean um what would that look like then since I'm not familiarized with what you just proposed well I wouldn't be prepared to to make a motion tonight mainly because you're supposed to have a written specific statement of the purpose of the committee dates for filing reports a date for the sunset which facilities supplies equipment and clerical support will be provided to each committee um and then kind of the other things so I guess that's those are kind of the things we would need to kind of figure out um and I'm sorry I didn't come like prepared with that tonight because I also didn't know what everybody's thoughts were and no it's fine um so how about this or if it's even right in time [Music] a mentor who once said there's always money for the things that are important and um I think time time there's that old expression time is money money is time right so I think on both time and money there's always time and money for things that are important and and I certainly and apologize I don't know if I'm supposed to weigh in in this way or not but I wouldn't beat yourself up because we weren't agendized to put the committee together anyway so but we have a we've kept a pretty light schedule for August 15th because of one of the other items that's being brought to us and there's certainly room on that calendar and probably enough time in the two-week time span to get all of this together to try to bring that back as an item for August 15th if if the board so desires yeah that's that was going to be my suggestion suggestion and then in my 101 when I do it with Mr Man Miss Gibson McLean if you could join in on with that so we can discuss that and just bring it as a future agenda item with this and we'll just table it and and see how that that would work but I I just went and took the lead on this and figured out like this is it and this is great this is why I need voices and I need your guys's opinions and thoughts because now I know what direction to move I just said you know what I discipline's crazy here so let's get started somehow great one but this could be a starting point this could you know be a launch pad so I don't I hope it doesn't feel like we're throwing away the work here and then I think it's something we can start from um and another thing just to add while it's still on my mind even though I promise I took my meds this morning um you had made a comment about kind of being putting ourselves out there right and you know I'm the type of attorney and person in general who likes to try to be creative and creative about subjectivity in many of these things right and there's so much subjectivity even within the criminal code and that means that subjectivity equals power and if our folks who are implementing these things don't really have a full grasp and understanding about the definitions of things and or the implications of things and are quick to say something falls into something that could really create some crazy things for a kid or a whole family this is really where I'm thinking the creativity comes from I think we can still operate within statute and put ourselves out there as being very Progressive in the way that we're addressing some of these things well can I add on to that just because my District spent the last year totally Reinventing our entire code of conduct and it's been and it's you know there's still going to be changes but it's similar along those lines where we're like okay how do we work within statute we want kids you know that there have to be consequences at some point but we also want to push towards restorative and and you know what are some alternative ways to do this but like it's it's been such a crazy balance and we brought in principles and we brought in teachers and we brought in students you know to talk about like what does this actually look like when you put in the place and I think well first of all thank you for doing this work because I think it is huge like this is a amazing launching Point um and I think if we really go through this and process intentionally and we change policy then the next step is let's look at that code of conduct and because that's really where your administrators see okay where does this fall where does this fall that's where you have that language that both students parents teachers that everybody understands that like you're not going to get into every possible little category in the policy I think that I just want to like note that so we don't forget that like once this policy is revised or all of the policies then the next step is let's look at our practices and what other documents do we have in place that will help people Implement policy as it's been decided on but also make sure that everything aligns we're going on for that not that I like loved this student conduct policy but I think we could replace that with something that's super aligned with the beliefs we've adopted as part of our strategic goals and plans in a way that creates like Norms that everyone who's involved in this District or a member of our community has should be like in agreement with um I don't know if that looks like making you know a whole new policy that's like something like that but I think that would be really great and that was another thing that I was going to add like the stuff that got completely taken out doesn't mean that it can be back in but it was just really crappy wording and so we were like just wondering I'm like some of this like we do need something about this but that was the intent of it of like hey this is a major red flag what are you guys going to do to fix it yeah like that was like the one of the steps to start getting her wheel spinning um so yeah and I'll just say like on a personal note going through this last night some of this was a little and I'll say the word triggering for me one of them being the section on confinement my brother went to school in this district and was in um I don't want to get emotional my brother was in special ed and he was placed in solitary rooms by himself in this District less than 30 years ago and it's very personal to me that we still have a policy like that it's unacceptable and it's not something we should have yeah there's a lot of stuff in here that obviously needs to be looked at needs to be raised and for that same you know we can't keep saying we're moving forward as a district and we have a policy that's been sitting there for 30 40 years it just doesn't make sense so um this is the start of all those conversations and I actually do like your idea I I just get into this mode where like three years we've nothing's been happening nothing's going nobody's doing anything so you know just go and throw it out there but I think that's what we'll do next is that we'll set up a meeting um so you can give us that information with um Mr Mann to figure out how we can go about getting that done and actually getting more input and I really want CA to be as involved as they can in this just because you know they're their Forefront they're the union reps to a lot of our teachers and they it would be great insight to work with them hand in hand on these these issues so when I think like Katie said there has to be ownership right to this too and I'm really curious to hear the rationale for all of the changes which I think that maybe should just be saved for the committee right um I assume a lot of it is because a lot of this this is very subjective right and it can be interpreted differently and it also goes to a little bit of the stuff that's been going on in the district just um because it is subjective you know and it goes back to that well I'm interpreting this as this but you're interpreting as this so we have now two different outcomes and the whole aspect of this too with even the certain words that it doesn't give a lot of room for subjectivity to happen it's just kind of blame Bland but you bring up another good point that once this is done we're really going to have to tackle on our code of conduct just to make sure that that is implemented in this too the um sorry you have to make a part of like the the every year routine is not to just present this to somebody or give them a booklet read like this is something that has to be edu like you know I've been practicing almost six years in the criminal code and like there's so many things in here that are from that and like I don't expect anyone in this room to to know right like there's no I mean there's some some of this stuff so like I mean there's I would not expect any teacher or staff member who's already so I totally get all this and I know exactly what I'm supposed like that's just like a crazy expectation to have of anybody and so I think that's where we also need to meet our folks who are on a regular basis and get them the information and make sure people feel comfortable and safe themselves in these situations right so we'll just leave it with that then we'll follow up us three with each other and then we can have board communication as well not violating open meeting law but you know Juarez be our Communicator like always um do we have any other questions or discussion in this before I move on to the next agenda item I appreciate you guys working with me on this and being so receptive to this I I do appreciate that so all right on the back but like this is exactly what I would expect to be on a board for is to have an actual conversation about something and not have some like smoke and mirror going on where we're just like pretending that we didn't talk about something and somehow we're miraculously passing something so I really appreciate having candid conversations having people in the room that we could have Canon conversations in and reminding that we can pull in people from the audience whenever we want if we want to ask a question appreciate it I think that's what elected officials and especially School Board should do more often because there's way too much on the Civil Wars where people are like oh we all got to be in agreement or vote the same way or look like some sort of united front when that's just ridiculous that that would even exist so I really appreciate the conversation and I hope that we can just continue with it awesome thank you all right um that brings us to Future agenda items do we have any future agenda items all right I do have one Speaking of all the changes um I would like to put on the future agenda item are student governance model work there's a new model um out of all the things that I do in school boards I've gone around with different districts and asked them what governance model do you guys use to bring out your policies or whatever it is that you guys are doing in your district and here in Arizona I think we're the Wild Wild West nobody knows what governance model they're doing nobody has an actual anything we're just kind of up here and going with the flow so Texas um not to go too much in detail but Texas uses a certain student outcome governance model and that's what I would like to present to the board to see if that's something that our community would fit our community and would be interested in adopting as well so and have an actual presentation as well on that so um hopefully that comes on the next board meeting so we will have be having um Dr Ramos coming in and presenting so CA if anybody would like to know from CA make comment comments come parents those are here in the room let your parents know because this is going to affect their children too and I think it's something that everybody's been asking for so hopefully we can have people in here to get information and get as much feedback as we can um it'll start at 7 pm oh yes and our next boarding meeting will start at 7 pm that's August 15th good to know I'm sorry yes because oh because of the presentation oh okay I thought there was another etiquette I was like we got an exec session for two hours oh no no no okay so let's start at seven yeah we start at seven and we'll have that presentation and other fun stuff all right um no other future agenda items I move the governing board adjourn all those in favor aye aye thank you guys have a great night drive safely buenas noches foreign
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something foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign clearly this entire district has been crazy busy all summer I always think about I have a very good friend who's a teacher in another District he always asks me like if I'm enjoying being relaxed over summer and as I run around the district I don't see a lot of people being relaxed over summer they're just busily making the things happen that need to happen and so I want to give a shout out to our Child Nutrition and wellness team they started providing meals to children and students in our community starting right after the last day of school and didn't finish up until this past Friday and over that period of time they served 82 707 meals to our students and our community part of the reason this works and the reason we're able to share that many meals out with our students and Community is because they don't work in a silo they partner with the summer school team the maintenance team team and most importantly the transportation team who helps actually bring the meals out into the community in addition to making sure all that feeding happened they were able to send five of their School site managers for professional development at the school nutrition Association National Conference this summer which provided 18 hours of continuing ed so that'll I'm sure help drive more Innovation and support from that program and I'm also very proud to announce that Aaron Bronner our director who was already a member of the national school nutrition association's board of directors was nominated by her peers to sit on the executive committee of the school nutrition Association during the final year of her board term and the best part about that is it will give her opportunities to have conversations at the national level to support nutrition and meals for our students and because of her being in that role she was actually able to give me a heads up right before I had an opportunity to meet with one of our Congress people at an event that our board president connected me up with and so we were actually able to get a message of support from our school district for the needs of our students for what we would like to see as universal for emails for all students so I'm very proud and appreciative of that a new educator orientation our camp Creighton was actually last week and we had amazing participation the entire curriculum instruction team did a fantastic job we're also very appreciative of the Creighton Education Association for their support of one of the lunches and just being there for support in general our paraprofessional PD also happened tail end of last week and our assistant principals that team partnered with our child Justice Advocates to provide professional development for a fairly large group of our um our student support professionals throughout the district we also had a hundred students receive 450 in clothing and backpacks and school supplies through a back to school event sponsored by GCU and another 200 backpacks of school supplies via aztv stuff the bus and I know our Community Education Department and their director Yvonne Carvajal have quite a number of other donations coming in that will be distributed out to our families as school get started up here we have our teacher curriculum nights coming up and so we're going to go ahead and make sure we get that information out to the board here but I think the majority of them are coming up this Friday and our all teacher curriculum update meeting will also be this Thursday morning that will be an opportunity for our teachers to work with the new curriculum we had shared with the board a report that we had 24 teacher vacancies still to fill I think that was last week and our HR team and our school leadership have done an amazing job we're down to nine and a half teacher vacancies as of today it was actually 10 and a half this morning and we hired one during the course of the day and then the last thing I apologize for this being so long it's been a long hot summer but we have our welcome back rally tomorrow um and I wanted to give a shout out of thanks to the Creighton Education Foundation for supporting um some items for the event and the creative Community Foundation who is sponsoring our breakfast in the morning as well as our nutrition and that's all I have thank you so much matharis would you like to start us off with the board reports oh sure um so welcome back I know there's not a lot of people here tonight um but man you get tired like that first day you go back I've been back for two days and I'm like okay I need like an app um I went to the breakfast um when was that last week Wednesday yeah I know I can't even remember um Wednesday so I I stopped by but I had a leadership team meeting so um I had to run out but um it looked very productive and it looked like there was a lot of people there and it looks like they were excited too um I cannot make it to the rally um tomorrow because I have my own rally that I have to be at that's a bad thing about being an educator as well is that things kind of fall on the same time so I'm not able to go to some of these things but I'll be thinking about you guys I love going to the rallies I love my rallies because I I like to be bop around and go see people um but thank you have a good year um thank you for all your hard work during the summer I know a lot of people put a lot of work in during the summer so thank you thank you so much for that Miss McCaleb um yes welcome back I feel like I haven't been here in forever because I was at a conference during the last meeting we had um but I hope everyone had a wonderful summer I know um pretty much everybody here in the room right now worked all summer um and many more of you but I appreciate all the hard work that everyone did um to make sure kids were fed make sure teachers had materials and curriculum and scope and sequences and all that prepared administrators making sure everything's ready for the new school year I've been working all summer too so I know there's a lot to be done and I hope you guys all have an amazing new school year um I got to go to the cea luncheon last week I didn't get to go to the breakfast because we had our new teacher breakfast so ditto um being an educator in two districts that start and end on the same day and have the same exact calendar is challenging but um I did get to go to the cea luncheon it was phenomenal thank you cea for having me and um I cannot go to the rally tomorrow either because all of my teachers come back tomorrow morning so I have to be there for them but I wish everyone the best and I'm so excited for the new school year thank you so much Miss mcshefree yeah um welcome back to everyone I just wanted to do my board report on the naleo conference that we attended in New York um in uh July I guess it was um it was I I liked the conference better this time than the first time I went part of it was um our our legislators were there because they were on a little break so I got to meet a couple of new ones um so that was that's always nice here's it's not all school board members it's other elected officials and so not every um session is directed towards school board members so some of them I'm I go into kind of scratching my head going what's going to be my takeaway here but everyone I went to I had a really great takeaway I thought and I feel like the theme of a lot of the sessions where that mental health needs to be the higher priority for students than achievement like that's critical it's it's the same as food you know um they're not going to be able to learn if they are not um if we're not addressing their SEL needs um I had um there's a a thing the feds are doing called Justice 40.
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you ready we call meeting to order it is 6:30 um and at this time we will I'm sorry to have my mic on it's on now we call me to order this time what do we do call roll call yes sir hold on all right Mr Alber here president Brown sorry I should that last all right he Mr gyos here rup is here Mr swales here miss s stumbris here Dr Hall here please rise for the pledge Alex can't say the Pledge sure I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible all right public comments do we have any public comments yes just the one right okay okay public comments by Mari I don't know how to say the last name I'm sorry oler oler um so it says to whom it may concern what is the reasoning behind having the kindergarten students start on Monday August 28th versus the original calendar date of Thursday August 24th if you're going to amend the calendar then why don't the whole District just start on the same day Monday August 28th what that is the public comment um yes and I responded she sent it as an email and I did respond to her already today okay thank you any board updates no board updates real quick real quick doc I would like to I'll just see if there's anyone still wanting or looking to go to that leadership class that Pastor P sorry yeah we're trying to get us to a tape I know I'm going on August 3D if there's anyone else in M go and just a reminder to the board members uh he's referring to the one in Moni um that is it a virtual one did we understand or no it's well you go to the it's like a off site it's virtual there but you can't do it like from your desk yeah all right yes we have separate two board members that are attending at this point okay good oh that's great that's great thank you Dr all right and just one other thing I attended a web- based class regarding superintendent EV out and it was a great it was a great web based class and I want to talk more about it because there is great opportunity to EXC excuse me yeah there's a great opportunity to uh conduct eval electronically so I'll share that next C maybe next week with you guys I just give you just a hits up on that that's all I have all right thank you um I do want to say that we had we um had a workshop through ISB which was the equity um Workshop I thought it was really well run it was um I thought we got a lot out of it everybody can if you want to share your thoughts on it they have offered the opportunity for us to have a followup um to the uh Workshop as well at no cost to us us um it it was insightful I thought it brought us together and I just you know I really enjoyed it so yeah I Echo those comments doc I I really didn't think I would get as much as I did out of that but it was very engaging very touching with some you know sharing people sharing some of their personal lifestyle and things of that nature but I tell you it was what work the day F on that court so thank you for spear hitting that Dr Hall I really appreciate it no problem thank you all right that's it for B board updates we have any administrative updates um just a reminder uh we do have a support Day that's coming up August 12th uh we'll be sending something out uh for uh any volunteers that would like to help out uh we have done this for several years and it's been very well attended I believe volunteers get there at 8:15 but I think it's run from 99: to 11: so and again that's where students are allowed to come in they get uh school supplies things for their backpacks ahead of time so certainly anybody in the community let us know if you're interested in helping out with that um Ken did you want to give any updates on facilities before school starts especially with the heat that might be on everyone's mind I do and so um let me let me give a quick update um hopefully quick update on construction and where we stand right now um so right now our substantial completion date is August 11th uh which is a week from Friday uh we look to hit that number that date what that means is that uh everything will be complete Enough by code that we can occupy the facilities so that's what substantial completion uh means um right now at CSK belmorrow in Creet um all asbestos has been removed from those facilities so that is all done flooring is going in now um and let me talk about air conditioning because those three buildings were set for air conditioning let me preface this by saying there's two separate systems in each of our buildings when it comes to air conditioning one is worked on a chiller method which is really cold water um and that's in a lot of the CL classrooms and something called a univent that you probably heard me talk about that puts out heat and um air conditioning and then we have areas in the building that have rooftop units in that uh those are our bigger areas like this room here is run by a rooftop unit our gymnasium is run by that uh it's just a lot more efficient the on the air conditioning in CSK Boro and cre the chillers will not be in to run the air conditioning so in essence and those have been pushed back we had the same issue when we did ELC in tala last year um so classrooms will not be air conditioned per se however the good news is is that the rooftop units will be in to provide air conditioning in areas of the building including the hallways so hallways will be air conditioned along with other bigger areas like your cafeteria your gymnasium your uh libraries there's a multi-purpose room and in addition to that we have not taken out any window units in classrooms that may have been there so those are still there also um so in essence you know the only thing that that won't be air conditioned in those CL are the classrooms which are the important ones however there will be air conditioning in the hallways that can pull into the classrooms we are ordering fans that can circulate the air a lot more than than it will be circulated um and and that's no different than last year when we started that is no different last and were exactly the same position yes they were in exactly the same position in fact they were a little bit worse because we didn't get the chillers in winter time uh are these chillers are coming in in September and it it will make no sense to turn the the system on at that time because it takes them once the chillers are here it takes about three or four weeks to hook everything up so there's no sense in that um given those that time just in case on a odd chance is there a contingency safety plan for excessive heat days there always is that contingency uh we do have an excessive heat plan uh that we we have I will let you know that just today I ordered water bottles for all of our students uh because we've gone to bottle fillers um I thought and we thought that as an executive team we thought it was important that all of our kids have water bottles so we're ordering water bottles for all of our kids so we have that we don't have to go through the situation of having bottled water anywhere and all that stuff perfect thank you for the clarification yep um when it comes to tala and ELC of course ELC did not have any work done this year um so they're pretty well Set uh tala did have aestus removal in a lot of their building that has all been removed uh we were a little bit worried about the flooring but the flooring's there so that be in uh in the classrooms and that so we should be good there th that building along with this building has full air conditioning so that has already been done and all of that and obviously ELC and talo are supposed to have cosmetic construction this summer but because of it was overpriced we waited we waited so are you going to rebid that so that by4 so one of the things we're doing at our at the August 8th meeting is that we'll be coming and sharing with you um a summary of our life safety projects our 10-year projects that the board has asked for so we'll do that then we'll give you an update on the budgets where we're at MoneyWise um and then yes we'll be rebidding that once I see where the budgets are uh we can determine what we're going to do I know for you know like at ELC we talked about painting the facility and also trying to get rid of some lockers and putting in cubicles for the kids uh and some storage area and then we'll look at other buildings and and what we can do in that so we'll be rebidding that probably in September or October so next week we'll get a we borrowed x amount of dollars 60 million this is what we spent this we have left because the five projects will be completed and they all have contingency numbers in them yes so we want to make sure the contingency number is either introduced back in right to work on some of the Cosmetics yes all right and then the other thing you're going to see next week on the agenda is that we do have the final payouts for the uh 22 projects uh so that'll be a final payout all the punch list items have been completed to our satisfaction so there'll be a final payout on all of those too um so you'll see that the high school addition um I will let you know um the substantial completion date has now been pushed back to November about November 11th it's been pushed back to uh because there uh there's a big electrical panel that we are trying to get uh it's held up we think over in China somewhere so it's coming over uh so that has been pushed back we're still still okay because our plan was to go into that building over winter break actually uh so we would start in January in that addition so we're still okay there uh you know am I confident about November 11th I I wish I had a crystal ball and can tell you but uh we'll see but the contractor seems pretty compated so August 11th you said that the buildings will be uh Boral cre and CSK is that after the Roe inspections uh that is the day of the Roe inspection okay yeah um so what we are planning for and I I'll let the board know this is on August 9th we're going to do a walkth through of the buildings uh we did this last year with some board members uh along with our Union reps um all of our exec team we kind of walk the building so we can see the condition of it um we will start in one of the buildings I haven't set the schedule yet but it will be August 9th which is next Wednesday we'll probably start around 9:00 in the morning um and we'll just go from building to building so I will share that with the board it'll come from Dr Cara or myself I'll share that and share the schedule with you if you would like to join us you are more than welcome to join us so you can see it it gives us an idea and we had this last year we worked with the Union on this and you know we had one building that really wasn't ready to be occupied but um we're in a lot better shape this year and so I don't think we're really going to have any issue with with opening up the buildings on time okay um I don't think I I think I got everything in that I don't know if anyone else has any question the last question is for Dr Carol so MEC are we starting over at MEC for half a year and then transitioning over to the new addition yes we are we the building is uh the addition should be ready in October but we wanted a nice clean break for our kids so we're going to start them in January so and once that happens we're going to have to re we're going to decommission it again with three meetings again right correct I believe so yes yes I think we're still to do that okay um real quick let me just touch on support day again as Dr cared mentioned that um so the public knows we'll be sending out a couple uh School messenger calls next week to all of our families and letting them know about support day but again uh we'll let our families know next week that to okay great thank you my other update just uh to let you know uh we will be sending out our community newsletter uh I think C may have sent you a copy of it so you can see what's coming out uh it's going to print and uh it should be out in family's mailboxes uh probably early next week so um it gives an update to all of our community members about the things that went on over the summer the buildings and as well as some of the things that we're going to be doing next year with closing out our strategic plan uh trying to find people that would like to participate in that process as well as some other goodies so uh don't do a spoiler alert but look for that newsletter uh coming up all right I'm going to go through I've got we've got about three things under administrative updates the first one is press plus it's a first read it's issue 112 um I did meet with Miss rup uh several weeks ago as we went through this um press plus always does just a really good job of working with the attorneys to fine-tune any of the language so uh the sheet that I gave you my cheat sheet basically kind of outlines many of these updates most of them are just legal updates based on new legislation uh wording changes uh in item 4.45 on insufficient fund checks there was a couple questions that the district needs to respond to um which I can take care of and one of them was has the board adopted the policy language regarding regarding the local debt recovery program the answer is no to that so they will just be eliminating that um one question um and then the other one um no I think that was it the rest of them as um as presented if if there are any questions on those okay like I said this is a first read then this will be moved to the August 8th uh to be uh in our consent agenda okay all right back to business do you want to talk a little bit briefly just about the adjustments on the purchase agreement I do um as as everyone knows we haven't purchased the building yet so um our our attorney Bill Gleason has worked with their attorney and so we do need to adjust the uh purchase agreement the two main adjustments that have been made are on dates in the original agreement it said that the closing would be by June 30th now it's August 31st so we've had to make that change in there uh so that has been done Bill also said there were a few minor changes in due in due diligence section in order to move the dates from April 30th to August 11th so that has also been done so those are really the only changes there are no changes in the financial uh situation or any of that stuff it's really in the dates that we're in there okay great thank you so that's it moving on to personnel and culture uh Dr melan chenko I don't know if you have want to say a few words about the discussion of the guest rate changes sure um so as you see the proposed rate changes there um we received some information from 18 surrounding districts and found that our daily rate was substantially lower with most districts adopting $150 per day starting this school year so that's our proposal for that as well as ramping up for Subs that work more days throughout the the district um also just eliminating some of the from experience there's been some confusing language surrounding what's a permanent sub what's an a long-term leave sub permanent sub thinks that because I work every day I get the higher of the rates but that's not the case so just some language tweaks around that permanent sub becoming a Cadre teacher meaning that you're working every day in support of wherever absences may exist in that building or wherever the building needs are um and then designating our long-term subs for positions that where a person is out on a leave of absence or any unfilled positions those would would be the only ways we would designate somebody as a longterm um and then with the guest Personnel rate changes we're looking to eliminate the related service one as if we need if a related service providers is out on a long-term um leave or it's an unfilled position we would reach out to a contract agency and then we'd be subject to the terms of that versus uh a a daily rate and same thing for an administrator um I've never seen anybody sub for an administrator so if we we're in a case where again somebody was out on leaveing we needed somebody there would be a contract that' be brought to the board for approval on that um Additionally the Food Service custodian secretary and student workers would be brought up to minimum wage that will be in effect for January 1 of 2024 at $4 an hour thank you okay that it yep okay um now consent agenda can you yeah before we go to the consent agenda I just wanted to take this opportunity to have Miss Perkins maybe just elaborate a little bit more on the uh approv of the amended calendar especially since there was a public comment on that tonight I think it's good for the public to know um some of the exciting things that we're actually doing this year that a little bit different regarding our kindergarten friends so in listening to our uh kindergarten staff and in sending 130 students from our ELC program into kindergarten this year that is the most students we've sent in seven years um to our kindergarten classrooms uh we typically have about 260 students in our uh kindergarten program um we are doing a pre-screening of those additional 130 students uh and so we are asking parents on August 8th 9th and 10th to bring in um those students so that we can give our kindergarten team time to um uh look at their data and get to know those families and so those uh two additional days um where uh other students are starting those kindergarten teachers are going to um meet uh with those families and uh again kind of review that data of what we found out about their kids before they start with us so those are new to the family um that we're offering that to uh get to know their students better yeah we're hoping that this personal relationship right at day one in kindergarten will really help set the foundation for their their careers here uh starting in kindergarten so uh we're excited about uh moving in that direction thank you Miss Perkins all right I think we're now we're ready for consent all right we are on to consent agenda and Dr coges can you read I sure can under superintendent item one approve regular meeting minutes of July 18 2023 item two approve regular meeting close session minutes July 18 2023 under personnel and culture to approve Personnel report would include approved certified staff employment re reassignment resignation and intent to retire and educational support staff employment and resignation um then item for B would be the to approve the 2324 student handbook underneath teaching and learning would be to approve the amended calendar for the 23 24 school year any discussions any questions about uh the consent agenda yeah I just uh one comment I looked it on the um student handbook it didn't look like there were any changes to the cell phone policy no but I just want to reinforce that our buildings enforce that policy the especially at the beginning of the year you know every year it seems like we need that comment so we will reemphasize that uh with our middle and high school okay good thank you doc we may want to get a motion to approve the suspended for well that's that's what I was going to do next after oh so we do the okay so um I think nobody wants anything pulled from the consent agenda all right um that being said can we get a motion to to approve the consent agenda yeah that's that's what I was saying oh you say that's what I said I Mo I didn't know oh I'm sorry friend I motion to approve the consent agenda a second motion by zit s somus did I say it right you're good yes okay and Mr G goes mhm and second by Mr G we ganged up on you there with the names huh sorry that's right that was me going slow can I get a roll call sure uh Mr gigos I rup is an i Mr swales I miss s stumbris i Mr Alber I um Mr Brown hi Dr Hall I motion carries all right motion carry next is our action reports and do you read that usually you do but I can if you'd like I mean action reports under business we have approved 2324 kids count contract and under personnel and culture approv administrative contract I think we have to do those one at a time right one at a time yes yes okay so first we'll do business which is approve the 23 24 kids count contract so can you have a motion can I get a motion moved second all right move by R second by alre can I get a roll call what do we have any questions first any discussions yeah n n can I get a roll call sure um Miss site stumbris I Mr swales I rup is and I Mr gas hi Mr Al hi Mr Brown hi Dr Hall I okay businesses approved next is personnel and culture approve administrative contract I get a motion to approve administrative contract so moved moved by gyos second second by Z somus any discussion on administrative contracts none can I get a roll call please sure Mr Alber I Mr gy Eagles I rup isn't I Mr swales I miss site stumpers I Mr Brown I Dr Hall hi all right that is approved any old business any new business yes Dr car I was just wondering the school year is approaching fast do we have or do we have plans in place for um kind of like mental health support for our staff so as the year goes on we'll get here two three weeks everybody will see each other but then quickly um besides going to work and and doing what they do they got to go home there's families but they're going to be in the schools all day are we prepared for um for them you know to be there for them for everybody the staff teachers uh secretaries food and Food Service custodial um you know anybody that's in our buildings um we've actually made quite a few um adjustments to our Administration and our restructuring and some of the programs that we're going to be offering for next year um I'm really excited about what we're doing to move forward we've done a lot of time listening to our administrators and more importantly listening to our our leadership at the union level to hear what's going on with teachers um so I can share a few things off the bat of what we're planning to do and welcoming folks back um in working with our Wellness we have a new Wellness uh Direction with Dana hullman and currently we used to have something called a comsite it was staff could access uh Services through our employee assistant program and that offers three to six sessions of mental health to staff we've had that before now we're expanding it even more so we're looking into also offering something called perspectives it's staff will be able to work with the health Mental Health Service again for three to six sessions for staff as well as for emergency responses in the event of a crisis Management in some of our buildings and is that for everybody MH that's good okay good yeah and uh if there is a crisis in our buildings we can rely on this support system so we don't have to use exclusively just our staff in case they're feeling burned out we've got another support team to bring in so we're working on that we're also looking to bring a biometric screening in health is very important to our staff especially as we're going through our insurance committees and seeing you know a variety of of health issues so we want to keep our staff healthy make them have them come to work every day and feeling good when they're here so we are looking to offer uh well-being biometric screening in October November uh this will offer flu shots blood testing for staff to allow for early detections or any medical concerns so those are some of the newer things that we're offering through our benefits coordinator um I've also reached out to the uh Community Partnerships Creek Park District I had a conversation with them back early in Spring to see what other kinds of things that we could do to offer for our staff and so they have put together three three major activities that we will be supporting and sending out to the buildings we will be having adult sports Gauntlet they are going to be organizing friends and family so we were going to work on getting schools perhaps to participate schools against schools for uh for five weeks five games of soccer flag football Ultimate Frisbee kickball and whiffle ball so those will be starting in September so we're encouraging staff to get that physical exercise and enjoy themselves our theme this year in the district is supporting you and so we're really focusing on health life balance here in the district we're even starting our Institute day with that theme and we've got a couple little um surprises there at Institute day to really support that so everything that we're doing this year is about that Health life balance putting in fun watching your health watching your stress level uh these other things that cre Park District is doing is a pickle ball tournament in September and they're starting evening yoga we certainly want to encourage those that need to de-stress and compress after a work day uh working with our students and our families and so forth to relax with yoga so we're starting that as well some other focuses that we've worked on in talking with our teachers and our administrators last year is again focusing on the well-being of our students our classrooms teachers did feel burned out last year as well as a lot of our other workers with just the demands that are coming to us and so we were listening to see what we can do to uh better support staff so our central office team is going to be out in buildings next year uh we with the restructuring we will be having them out um you know 40 to 50% of the time so you'll be seeing people in classrooms out in the buildings and supporting and listening you'll even see our HR sitting in the lounge I said he got the best job by the way uh he'll be sitting in lounges from time to time our HR team will be out there once again to help support with benefits with enrollment we did that this year to help reduce the stress of filling that enrollment changes so again more of the Personal Touch is where we're going for for next year um like I said we've added Our Kind kindergarten transitional program we help support our little ones uh and also supporting our families like you heard with the kindergarten screening that we have we are actively looking for a music and art at at the elementary buildings as everyone knows we have not had enough enough music and art in our elementaries for quite some time our students deserve access to those Fine Arts programs and you know it also gives our teachers some time to work together in their teams so we're adding that as well we are also focusing again on Elementary with supporting our teachers we're going to be we've hired or going to be hiring a team of four guest teachers that will be coming to the buildings covering classrooms so our teachers and at a particular grade level can now work together together on instructional strategies teaming uh we're going to be focusing on Cooperative learning really focusing on social skills again and giving our our teams time to do that so there's a lot of things these are just a few things to mention but it's a holistic approach to well-being trying to get it from all different angles and uh and again with a lot of listening and refining and reflecting um as we go through the year we will always continue to adjust to the messages that we're hearing from right and we always worry about the the students but our staff is just as important absolutely absolutely I mean at all levels so to make sure that they stay and they don't get burned out right and I think you know we've learned a lot with our recruiting practices we're doing exit interviews with all of our staff members we're taking the data from that and we're trickling it back through the system to see what areas that we need to do uh Miss Perkins has put together a really a fabulous um PD program for those that can volunteer here for it on that Monday coming back um we usually get you know a nice showing of Staff members that are ready to come back so again we really don't invest in our employees that's a good tool to have because we lost all four of our high school Deans and we wanted to know why so we can figure out how to fix that yes and we did so thank you for asking we got do Dr care those are Comm men Chang not no thank [Laughter] you I also wanted to mention you know as you recall a few meetings ago uh Mr Brown was really encouraging the district to focus on ELC and our little ones uh we are now putting out a program sure that we'll be going out and hitting our libraries um all of our vendors in the area about preschool strategies to do at home for our families will be reaching out to some of uh the owners of the apartment complexes to put these in their hallways and reach out so we're really um putting our wrapping our arms around um you know and getting into the communities for this and I could go on but let you I notic no I I love what we're working on that's all I love it I love it too um no so that's new business and that's it so close session this is closed session um a motion to go into a Clos session now this is why okay I'm asking for a motion to go on to close session um for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees and L ation when the public U body finds that an action prob is probable or in amended so move moved by Mr Al second second by Mr Dio gagos roll call please okay um R is an i Mr sish hi Miss site stumbris hi Mr alre hi sorry Mr gagos I Mr Brown oh he say I thank you Dr Hall hi all right we are going to close session do we have any more business after this no we do not okay so after this we will adjourn that and that will be the only business that we will have so we will thank everyone who tuned in and good night had a great
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this is public comment an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about any issue um on the agenda or not we'll we will first call an individual's present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely press star 9 of listening by phone or use the raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand using the last three digits of your phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time is there anyone that wants to address this remotely all right then I will close the public hearing we're on to item 12 commission proposed business are there any Commissioners that would like to propose business okay see no one I like these meetings I'm going to move on to item 13 adjournment moved by commissioner white seconded by commissioner Sobe all those in favor please say aye we are adjourned foreign
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um I sent it to my fellow board members and Mr Mann it's um a lot of grants that the feds are um offering up and 40 of it needs to go to disenfranchised um uh communities and it's um connected to climate change um that I went to a climate change session again like how does that relate to us but um gosh a lot of it does um I'll give you one example that I really had no idea um places like Walmart are adding charging stations um now people who live in apartments or who rent cannot charge their electric vehicles at home so they have to go to Walmart or somewhere to pay for it and the problem is residents get a certain rate but places like Walmart is about 10 percent higher and they have to pass that cost on to their customers um I know the utilities are working on this once they become aware of it so it will change but if we want to see more um electric vehicles you know we have a lot of challenges I think in our neighborhood in order to do that there's not going to be enough space to have it if we really get to um have people start getting electric vehicles so anyways that was interesting and um a couple takeaways um Toyota has a nine million dollar Grant from a Mobility um the justice 40 like I said that's full of grants for that I think Creighton would really potentially qualify for and uh the National Science Foundation um our takeaway is broaden opportunities for stem careers because that is where um the climate um an electrification lives and you know I know we've we always say Mackin is a stem school you know I don't think it's it's stem enough from the feedback that I've gotten we we really we do not have we don't have the workforce in this country to attack these climate change um um issues that we really need to work on until we we up our stem in this country anyways I thought that was very interesting um and then Mr Mann and I went to um like a trauma-informed um a session that I thought was just great uh I feel like in the 45 minutes that we were in there it it really just kind of told the story of why being trauma informed is really the most important thing we need to help our new teachers especially understand and that is going to go hand in hand with our discipline policies as well um so I know Mr Mann uh took you you grabbed a card right and and um and you're working on things like that so um again he reinforced um trauma-informed SEL needs to be like one of the only initiatives in order for it to work in order to see a difference so again because this post covid you know we're still getting through this um and the trauma that our kids went through and still go through and went through before covid um I really think and I know we're focusing on it um but it really needs to be the number one thing I think that we're looking at so I think as a board when we go to our study session you know that's going to be something we can talk about focus focus focus you know and not have too many initiatives um oh and we also went to a budget one um I was very glad Mr Mann was there I wasn't I I was like this is not my the one I want to go to but I felt it was my duty too and it was really actually quite interesting um and I'm gonna have Hilda share with the other board members there's a virtual um session coming up that um these folks are going to put on as well um but I think I learned a lot and I thought they brought up some really good points and again I'm glad Mr Man was there for that as well so thank you I thought it was a good good conference this year thank you Miss MC Jeffrey Miss Gibson McLean hi everybody um I I feel like my brain is like moving slow right now I don't know if because I was like on a roll at work before I decided I had to get in the car and come here but um first of all just welcome back I wanted to congratulate Dr pombo and Dr Lauren um excited to have you all working with us in your new role and in general so thank you and welcome um also thank you to the facilities folks I know last week I know it's probably a lot to make sure everything's all still up and running even if people aren't necessarily totally gone out of the buildings the entire summer but I know there's been some AC issues and other things and it doesn't go unnoticed because we definitely couldn't be here without that especially with the weather that's been going on so we appreciate appreciate you I did not go to naleo but I'm excited to go to cube next month and I don't know that I I can't make it in the morning I have uh two sentencings that I have to get to um I would love to be there um if I didn't have a pesky job that got in the way I'm sure my clients will appreciate me being at work in the morning but I hope everyone has a good time it sounds like it's going to be fun I wish I was there and um I don't think I have anything else I feel like we were just here and it's also been a long time so I don't know here we are look at us thank you um I also went to the new educator orientation that was great and just to kind of touch about this common formed I think I'm here in the district we do a really good job I was able to go into one of the breakout sessions and just listen in um for the new teachers and I can't believe I can't remember who was giving it but they were talking about how SEL can be embedded in the curriculum and how it can be easy and it sounds scarier than what it is but it can actually be implemented very well um that's why I like going to naleo conferences too because AS school board members you would never think that you would be trying to make policy changes on you know this type of stuff of SEL or climate change climate change actually impacts low-income communities way more I mean when I joined that cohort of urban hit leadership when we were learning about all that just within our ZIP code our you know Arcadia area had better weather than our southern part whatever district and that was just because you know of the resources that are out there what they put out there trees all these different things so climate change does affect everything and this is why I love going to conferences like naleo because nalel stands for the National Association of appointed and elected Latino officials so when they bring in these type of breakout sessions they bring it in with another lens you know there's a whole different lens to it as because it's impacting you know Latino communities so I appreciate you bringing that forth and I also appreciate that our district is kind of riding in that wave already when I go to these conferences and I go to these breakout sessions it makes them feel really good that when I come back some of that stuff I'm hearing all that stuff already or it's already being implemented so that's great to see um I'll be there tomorrow morning only for a little bit because I also you know work in life um I'm really excited about this new role that I took up and I usually don't share much personal stuff but I am this time just because I feel like it's really gonna impact and be a value to the district I just got into fair housing I know that that's a big issue and accessibility to the houses and everything and we basically um help out communities who feel that they've been discriminated against renters specifically not homeowners and that's something that our community you know our the majority of our kids and parents live in rental homes and sometimes things get done to them when they don't know that it's actually a fair housing issue and they're being violated or they're being discriminated against so it's going to bring a lot of educational pieces to our families so they know what to say or what to do and like kind of like know your rights and get feel protected and having them self-advocate for themselves when they're dealing with these landlords or these renters so I'm really excited excited about that and seeing how we can bring it into the school district and actually help her community with that um stuff too and lastly I just want a big give a big congratulations to the new executive director of the Arizona School Board Association um out of all the school board associations in the nation there's only two executive directors that are people of color our new executive director is actually Devin Del Palacio he is a school board member in Tolleson unified and he's an afro-latino so that was amazing to see and also for the first time ever in the nation we have an actual School Board member or somebody who was a school board member to sit as an executive director of a School Board Association so nobody in the nation has ever had an executive director that's been in the role of school boards so it's just great and I feel like a fresh new air for us the school board members since that's where we get most of our policy service most of our professional development to actually have somebody up there leading the way that knows what it is to be a school board member and the issues and the things that we um face every day so it's very weird it is very weird and when I heard I was like what but you know it's it's very exciting for us here in Arizona we have an upper hand in all the other states so I'm really excited to see where this association takes us in the next few years under his leadership and that is my board report next um we go to I move the governing board approved consent agenda items a through I in accordance with policy bedb Dash e all those in favor all right and that brings us to 6A which is amended governing board asva policy advisories number 744 through 746 this is going to be our first reading and Madam president members of the board um this one's going to feel like deja vu all over again because this is actually a series of policies that we just adopted changes to back in June and what happened in the subsequent time period is that um one of the law firms found some legal errors that needed to be corrected and so asba has integrated those adjustments and then submitted those changes to school boards for ratification I don't really you know in looking through it our team doesn't feel like is there any significant fundamental changes they're ultimately to bring the policies into alignment with the state statutes that they were intended to be aligned with in the first place so Administration is recommending um you know that we move forward clearly this is just first reading and we're happy to answer any questions and get any clarifications between now and next meeting for a second reading is there any discussion and questions on the Amendments no just for transparency's sake though if nobody's looking at it basically the only big deal is that they remove the word board as they said it's too confusing there's still all these new open meeting law requirements that are in effect so that big part is not changing yeah parts we don't like about it yeah all right um I don't have any additional questions so we'll just move on to the next item which I am super excited about it is the approval of principal for Monte Vista School well and we have an irony I'm going to turn it over to our new executive director for human resources who actually has some background and experience with principaling Monte Vista school so that's kind of an exciting way to do this so I'll pass it over to Dr Laura thank you madam president members of the board so we conducted a comprehensive search for the principal at Monte Vista School the Department of Human Resources advertise that they can see on our system as well as through the Arizona Department of Education through Facebook uh aspa indeed there were eight viable candidates in the pool and the paper screening Rose five candidates to the top and after they were selected they were participating in in basket activities plus a panel interview which was a pretty large panel 15 participants the participants were made up of Administrators there were student representation there was a parent representation as well as classified and certified staff from Monte Vista um so through that process we recommended the top two candidates for the finalist interview uh the superintendent uh assistant superintendent of teaching and learning myself Mr carbajal also participated in the final interview and we are pleased to recommend Miss Adriana apadaka as the next principal for Monte Vista Miss Apodaca has served as assistant principal at Monta Vista and excellencia schools and before that she was an instructional coach and teacher her experience in the classroom and supporting teachers and campuses has earned herself a reputation of being a well-rounded leader Miss Apodaca has two bachelor's degrees two master's degrees in educated related fields from Arizona State University so I'm we're proud to put Miss apodacco forward yay um that's extensive education thank you for your commitment that's amazing and with that I move the governing board approve Miss Adriana Apodaca for the position of principal effective August 3rd 2023.
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second and all those in favor aye aye congratulations [Applause] ever yes please oh Lindsay yeah um yes thank you so much I just want to um show my gratitude for the opportunity to be able to like continue to work with the Blue Devils and our mission um and also I really want to thank our um the mentorship that I've had throughout the district and throughout these years coming from all sorts of areas um it's just been really helpful and so I'm just glad that I get to continue to have a role in it and I'm really excited to continue all the good things that our team has been doing so congratulations thank you so much yes congratulations thank you [Applause] okay I need a breather for this one um so we're gonna have discussion on policies jic j i c a r j i c f j i h j k j k d a and j k e um before I go into what we're going to be doing we do have a public comment for this so I'm gonna ask Miss Dorothy to come up the three good evening thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak on this agenda item I did get a chance to review um I don't remember all the letters but all of those policies I opened each one and went through it I couldn't quite tell for sure um you know I saw the strikethroughs and then the additions um I couldn't quite tell like was was that coming from you guys or was it coming from like Asda whatever those letters are that usually Drive our policy um but overall I really thought the changes made sense they were logical they kind of fit um what we're looking for in terms of the trauma-informed care more restorative practices looking at that proportionality issue when it comes to different subgroups of students and what their suspension or expulsion rates look like so overall I thought the changes made a lot of sense um there were um some areas that wow just really changed a lot in other areas that only changed a little bit I guess one of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about was all right we're in this tough place we need to find this way to get the balance between we have some students really struggling right even some adults but we have students really struggling and they can be very disruptive and they can assault other teacher teachers or other students and we need to deal with that and we need to continue to love them right because our our little box doesn't say we love each child who behaves great or does wonderful and never makes a mistake and never does anything wrong it says we love each child as our own and I know out of my six kids sometimes they did things that were wrong and that they needed to learn and grow from and there's different ways that we can help children learn to grow from the choices that they've made um so we got to find that balance we need to make sure that we are yes holding them accountable for the standards that we're setting yes helping them learn how to have different ways of responding when they're frustrated and upset but we also need to continue to treat them like human beings who also deserve our support and our help in my experience hurt people hurt people so we need to make sure that we're supporting 100 percent the the victims those that are bullied as well as supporting those that are doing the bullying because if we don't start setting some of that now when they're very young and as they're growing up then society as a whole suffers right when they get into high school when they get into college when they get into adult worlds if they haven't built some of those skills you know all of us are going to feel the impacts of that and it's going to be harder to make a difference for them so I support the work that we're doing and I just want us to keep moving forward there are several different organizations that I'm aware of that deal with things like the bullying and The Dating Violence Bloom 365 is a wonderful organization so I would encourage us to keep looking at those things thank you thank you so much Miss green and to answer your question and everybody else so basically what when was the last time we had a disciplined revision of policy do you know because these all have various States as when they were adopted so oh yeah I see it yeah so what I did is that I belonged to this cohort called School Board partners and I had talked about that and it's a basically a non-profit that does professional development for school board members but all their work is an anti-racist policy work um they have a lawyer and I sat down and it was very long meetings with this individual but basically I met with this person um I know that we have discipline committees I've heard I've gone to the schools and one of the things that I noticed as I was going to the schools and as a parent of two kids in two different schools started noticing that our discipline policies looked very different in every single school and to me that looks like an issue as me personally speaking not speaking for anybody else and this is why I decided to tackle this on I just thought it was it it's more hurtful for a child to be moved from one school to another school and then their whole discipline everything that they're doing is different that I don't believe that helps anybody and when we're adopting this policies it should be the norm across all the schools now I understand that every school has its own Community has its own way of doings like I know that we have in one school houses and we that's fine that that's a way of getting kids involved and what works for that Community right but when we're coming down to the nitty gritty of discipline what are we doing when it's the same repeated children I wanted to have this candid conversation with all my board members open it up to the public people are going to be watching this when you know later on they can go back and we're going to just have a discussion today and keep having a discussion next board meeting or the next board meeting if more input needs to put into this but I felt that we were at a time where these discipline policies were outdated they needed to match the work that we're doing and the only way that people can fall back on to make sure that what we are doing stays is that they go back and look at this and like okay this matches the policies that we have right now do not match the stuff that we're doing in the district and we're doing great things in the district it needs to be reflected in this so when us are gone when you guys that are doing the great work is gone the next school board members or the next superintendent will come back and say I have a clear vision of where this District stood not just you know talked and said they were doing all these other things so that's one of the reasons why I decided to bring this and and these edits come from school board partners and myself but that's why I opened it up we're going to have a discussion and if we have to have another discussion we will do that um as well but that's kind of like my train of thought where I went with this and why I think this is so imperative because at the end of the day like Amy reiterated earlier this is one of the most important things and this is what this is going to either make or break our kids in their educational experience I understand that they have to have grades they have to have all this but you can't sit here and tell me that if this doesn't get fixed first in children there's no way that they're going to give you that a or they're going to give you sitting down paying attention to the teacher like it just doesn't work that way so I really wanted what we're saying and what we're doing actually reflects the policy and it's not doing that right now so I just wanted them to to kind of imagine and you know it makes sense um so the way that I'm going to do this is that I'm going to go through the first sections what was taken out and then we can ask questions we'll have the discussion if you guys have questions that we need to take back to the attorney just make sure you let me know and then I'm going to be making notes and then the superintendent and I Mr Mann can work together to get that stuff turned over because even though that attorney looked at it that attorney is not from Arizona and I know that we are bound by a lot of different statues here so that's why we're going to have our attorney look it over to to make sure that we're in compliance did you have a any questions or discussion before I start I I guess I'll just add about school board Partners I've been through things um pre-covered um I think they're a great organization um so I think that's awesome that you've been working with them to bring this to us so thank you I'm sure it was has been a ton of work so yeah I have a lot of trust in them as an organization you know so um I guess I didn't I guess I wasn't ready to like I mean I am ready to go through this piece by piece but I guess I wasn't thinking that was what was actually going to happen so I guess my concern is this um one of the main things that I want to always do is have ever have things that are this serious and this comprehensive be as collaborative and bring as many people to the table as possible um in reading all of this it's very apparent to me that you know that which I already knew and in doing my job that there's you know there there's stuff that's just literally copied and pasted from the criminal code in here which just goes to show the prevalence of the school-to-prison pipeline and how we are um grooming our kids to be um uh to be in Conformity with the uh the expectations of the carceral state here in Arizona and so um I guess my my concern is that we get a bunch of suggestions tonight and present them to the attorney when we haven't even gotten input from Community or other folks at the table and so I don't I mean I would love to sit here and go through stuff I just don't know if that's gonna I don't know if it's the best use of our time in terms of if if as a board we think that this should and you know maybe I'm the only one that thinks this I was thinking there should be some sort of board advisory committee or something that takes this on over A month's long thing if I'm way off from where everybody else is I'll move on but I do think there should be some more collaborative work done on this um knowing that I'm like thank you
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